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AN    ESSAY 


J 


^  our  •^ 

JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS; 


EMBRACIIVG 


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A  SKETCH  OF  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER -OP 

V   WILLIAM  PITT,  EARL  OF  CHATHAM, 


AND  MEMOIRS  OF  CERTAIN  OTHER  DISTINGUISHED  IfiiPIVIDUALS  ; 


REFLECTIONS  HISTORICAL,  PERSONAL,  AND  POLITICAL, 
RELATING  TO  THE  AFFAIRS  OF  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  AMERICA, 
,/  FROM  1763  TO  1785. 


By  benjamin  WATERHOUSE,  m.  d., 

MEMBER  OF  SEVERAL  MEDICAL,  PHILOSOPHICAL.  AND  LITERARY  SOCIEtlES 
IN  EUROPE  AND  AMERICA. 


As  to  the  Book  itself,  it  can  say  this  in  its  behalf,  that  it  does  not  merely  confine  itself 
to  what  its  title  promises,  but  expatiates  freely  into  whatever  is  collateral. 

Harrises  Hermes- 


BOSTON: 

GRAY    AND    BOWEN. 
1831. 


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DISTRICT  OF  MASSACHUSETTS,  TO  WIT. 

District  Clbkk's  Office. 

Be  it  remembered,  that  on  the  seventh  day  of  March,  A.  D.  183],  in  the  fifty- fifth  year  of 
the  Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America,  Gray  &  Bowen,  of  the  said  district, 
have  deposited  in  this  office  tiie  title  of  a  book,  tlie  right  whereof  they  claim  as  proprie- 
tors, in  the  words  following,  to  wit — .- 

"An  Essay  on  Junius  and  his  Letters;  embiacing  a  Sketcli  of  the  Life  and  Character  of 
William  Pitt,  EarlofjL'haiham,  and  Memoirs  of  certain  other  Distinguished  Indivuluiils;  with 
Reflections  Historical,  Pt-rsonai,  and  Political,  relating  to  the  Atfairs  of  Great  Biitain  and 
America,  from  J763  to  I7t5.  By  Benjamin  Waturhouse,  W.  D.,  Member  of  several  Med- 
ical, Philo»ophicalJ*and  Literary  Societies  in  Europe  and  America.  '  As  to  the  Book 
itself,  it  can  say  this  in  its  behalf,  that  it  does  not  merely  confine  itself  to  what  its  title  promi- 
ses, but  expatiates  freely  into  whatever  is  collateral.'     Burrui's  Hermes." 

lu  conformity  to  the  act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  estates,  entitled  "  An  act  fur  the  en- 
couragement of  learning,  by  securing  the  copies  of  maps,  charts,  and  books,  to  the  authors 
and  proprietors  of  such  copies,  during  the  times  therein  mentioned "  ;  and  also  to  au  act, 
entitled  "  An  act  supplementary  to  an  act,  entitled,  '  An  act  for  the  encouragement  of  learning, 
by  securing  the  copies  of  maps,  charts,  and  books  to  the  authors  and  proprietors  of  such  copies, 
during  the  times  therein  mentioned,'  and  extending  the  benefits  thereof  to  the  arts  of  desigQio», 
engraving,  and  etching  historical  and  other  prints." 

JNO.  W.  DAVIS, 
Clerli  of  the  District  of  MassachueettSo 


CAMBRIDGE  : 
PRINTED    BY    E.    W.    METCiLF    AND    COMPANY. 


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4 

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LIBII4RY 
mrVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNj 

SANTA  BARBARA 


> 


PREFACE. 


We  make  books  in  America  as  we  made  our  men-of-war, — 
one  man  contrived  and  executed,  what  employed  several  in 
the  ship-yards  of  Europe.  If  our  ships  be  as  good  as  the 
French  and  English,  we  do  as  well  as  they  with  less  means. 
The  time  has  been  when  one  man  procured  the  timber  from 
our  forests,  planned  and  superintended  the  building  of  the 
ship  even  to  its  rigging,  obtained  and  placed  on  board  the 
warlike  equipments  and  stores,  collected  the  crew,  and  then 
commanded  the  very  ship  he  had  created,  and  came  off  con- 
queror,— necessity  thus  generating  ambidexterity.  So  with 
our  literary  productions,  we  have  less  aid,  and  fewer  helps, 
than  they  in  the  capital  cities  of  the  old  world,  where  libraries 
and  learned  men  abound,  with  oral  information  on  every 
side.  If  we  in  these  ends  of  the  earth  labor  under  these 
disadvantages,  our  work  should  be  judged  of  accordingly. 
We  have  no  guide  but  Truth,  nor  other  ambition  than  to  be 
thought  to  follow  her. 

We  have  taken  hold  of  a  gnarled  question.  Should  we, 
like  others,  fail  to  maintain  our  long  conceived  hypothesis 
of  the  authorship  of  Junius,  we  trust  that  our  book  will  be 
found,  nevertheless,  to  contain  political  and  moral  principles, 
and  a  spirit  of  rational  liberty,  worthy  an  American. 


IV  PREFACE. 

This  essay  is  a  new  attempt  to  disentangle  the  most  impor- 
tant and  artfully  contrived  secret  of  modern  times,  the  devel- 
lopenient  of  which  will  open  curious  matter  for  speculation. 
It  has  already  exercised  the  wits  of  the  first  men  of  the  age  ; 
until  conjecture  has  been  wearied  and  fallen  asleep. 

The  British  reader  may  well  ask — Who  and  what  are  you, 
who  thus  undertake  to  solve   the  greatest  secret  in  our  his- 
tory ? — you,  born  and   dwelling   in  a  far  distant  region  of  the 
globe,  which  was  unknown  to  the  world  four  hundred  years  ^o, 
and  where,  little  more  than  two  hundred  years  since,  an  English 
word  had   never  been  uttered.     Is   it   likely  that  a  native  of 
the  new-found   quarter  of  the  globe  should  untie  a  knot  after 
all  our  efforts  have  failed  ;    and  unravel   a  snarl,  the  disen- 
tanglement of  which  we  on  the  spot  have  given  up  in  despair  ? 
I  reply  to  such  in   the  words  of  their  great  light  and  orna- 
ment, their  polar-star  and  ours.   Lord  Bacon.      "  Since  a 
man  who  stands  a  little  removed  from  a  spot  of  ground,  may 
often  survey  it  better  than  those  who  are  upon  it,  'tis  not  im- 
possible but   that  as  a  spectator,  I  may  have  observed  some 
things  ivhich  the  actors  themselves  have  not."  *     Still,  J^w- 
eve^jfcWhen  a  man  offers  a  book  of  this  sort  to  the  attention 
of  a  discerning  public,  they  ought   to  know  not  only  who  the 
author  is,  but   ivhat  he  is  ;  whether  he  has   ever  been  in  the 
w^ay    of  correct     information    respecting  private    characters, 
facts,  and  circumstances,  personages  and  affairs,  of  which  he 
ventures  to  speak  ;  and  what  portion  of  his  time  and  thoughts 
has    been    given   to  the    subjects    he    presumes    to    handle. 
Books  on  the  healing  art  have  been   written  in  a  confident 
style,  with  every  mark  of  deep  learning,  and  trait  of  genius : 

*  An  Attempt  to  promote  the  Peace  of  the  Church,     Sect.  II. 


] 


PREFACE. 


systems  have  even  been  built  upon  them,  by  able  men,  who 
in  fact,  knew  nothing,  from  their  own  experience,  of  the 
diagnostics  of  diseases,  adjunct  or  pathognomonic,  nor  of  the 
natural  course  of  distempers,  nor  of  the  operations  within 
us,  which,  without  the  aid  of  art,  tend  to  restore  the  disor- 
dered machine  to  its  pristine  regularity, — mere  closet  medical 
flhilosophers.  No  prudent  man  would  take  such  a  guide  to 
health,  or  listen  with  patience  to  his  speculations  on  life, 
health,  disease,  and  its  curative  process.* 

These  considerations  compel  me  to  the  disagreeable  task 
of  speaking  of  myself  But  irksome  as  it  is,  "  If  these  things 
be  necessities,  let 's  meet  them  like  necessities,"  and  speak 
like  a  man  who  has  lived  long  enough  in  the  world  to  have 
all  his  vanity  evaporate  into  tliin  air. 

After  being  under  the  instruction  of  an  eminent  practi- 
tioner of  physic  several  years,  I  embarked  in  the  early  part 
of  the  year  1775,  at  my  native  place,  Newport,  Rhode- 
Island,  in  the  last  ship  that  escaped  the  interdicted  port  of 
Boston ;  and  was  consigned  by  my  family  to  Doctor  Foth- 
ERGiLL,  in  London,  for  farther  improvement.  He  was 
fi  i^elation  on  my  mother's  side,  and  was  born  in 
the  same  neighbourhood  with  her  in  Yorkshire.  After 
enjoying  a  cordial  reception  from  the  Doctor,  he  sent  me  in 
the  autumn  of  the  same  year  to  Edinburgh,  where  I  remained 
l^ine  months,  and  then  returned  to  the  house  of  my  patron 
in  Harpur-street,  London,  in  which  I  resided  about  three 
years,  at  the  same  time  attending  various  lectures,  expressly 
on  or  connected  with  my  profession,  also  the  hospitals,  and 
occasionally  some  of  Fothergill's  own  practice.     In  the  lat- 

*  e.  g.  the  Brunonian  system. 


% 


PREFACE. 


ter  part  of  the  year  1778,  he  sent  me  to  Lei/dai,  to  acquire, 
as  he  smihngly  said,  a  little  of  the  Dutch   phlegm.     To  that  #' 
renowned  University  I  was   attached  four  academical  years, 
making  excursions  in  the  four  months'  vacation  of  every  year 
to  England,  France,  and  elsewhere.      When  I  entered  the 
University,  being  requested,  agreeably  to  custom,  to  inscribe 
my  name  and    country   on  the    records  of   matriculation,^ 
wrote  after  it,  "  Libekje  Reipublic^  AMERicANiE  Fcederj^ 
T^   Civis "  ;    which  ultimately  occasioned    more    talk    and 
captious  remark  among  some   there,  and  at  the  Hague,  than 
the  subject  of  it  was  worth,*  insomuch  that,  at  my  graduation 
a  few  years  after,  I  was  constrained  to  add  after  my  name,  sub- 
scribed to  my  Inaugural   Dissertation,  only  the  word  Amcri- 
canus,  before  I  could  obtain  the  imprimatur  of  the  University, 
and  this  by  the  friendly  advice  and  request  of  the  Rector  Mag- 
nijicus   and   Professors :    for  the   British  Ambassador  at  the 
Hague  knew  all  the  gossip,  through  his  agents,  among  the  stu- 
dents  (few  of  whom  were  under  twenty-five  years  of  age,  and 
some  w^ere  forty,  and  from  almost  every  nation   in  Europe, 
while  there  was  but  one  from  America  )  ;  and  this  at  a  time 
when  the  American  struggle  was  the  great  topic  of  universal 
conversation,   and  her   cause  very  popular;     and  when  the 
British  Ambassador  at  the  Court  of  the  Hague  f  domineered 
the  Dutch  as  if  they  were  English  Colonists. 

Our  illustrious  countryman,  John  Adams,  who  succeeded 
Washington  in  the  Presidency,  was  sent  by  Congress  to 
Holland  as  to  sister  States  to  court  an  alliance.  He  so* 
journed  in  that  country  over  a  year  before  he  was  publicly 

*  President  Adams  notices  this  in  his  printed  Correspondence,  p.  572. 
t  Sir  Joseph  Yorke.    See  Correspondence,  ib. 


PREFACE. 


acknowledged  as  the  American  Minister.  He  resided  almost 
entirely  at  Ley  den,  only  nine  miles  from  the  Hague,  which 
cities  are  not  farther  apart  than  the  extremes  of  the  city  of 
London.  During  that  time,  I  made  one  of  his  family,  living, 
together  with  his  two  sons,  in  the  same  house.  This  may 
account  for  my  strong  bias  to  politics  without  any  wish  of  ever 
j^ecoming  an  official  actor  in  them,  ardent  as  my  attachment 
was  to  the  holy  cause  of  our  struggling  country. 

My  venerable   kinsman  in  London,  my  fulcrum  in  every 
thing  good,  was   a   conscientious  advocate  of  the  American 
cause,  as  far  as  a  wise,  loyal,  and  honest  Englishman  could  or 
ought  to  be.*     He  labored   day  and   night  with  Dr.  Franklin 
and  others  to  prevent  hostilities  with  the  colonists ;  and  after- 
wards, when  the  battle  raged  with  alternate  success,  he  en- 
deavoured to   open  the  eyes  of  the  King  and  his  Minister  ; 
for  he  had  in  the  course  of  his  profession,  and  from  his  rank  in 
life,  the  facilities  to  attempt  it.  Their  ignorance  of  America  was 
astonishing !     The  people  of  Britain  generally  were  ignorant 
whence  we  sprung ;    what  language  we  spoke  ;  what  religion 
we  professed  ;  and  even  of  what  complexion  we  were.     The 
Island   of    Virginia   was  spoken    of   in  a    Court    of  Judi- 
cature, by    a    learned   pleader.        Li  a  word,    ignorance  of 
this  vats  region  pervaded  England,  Scotland,  and  Ireland, — 
their   Universities,    their    Courts    of   Law,   the   Legislature, 
j^nd,    in    too  general  a  manner,  even    the  administration  of 
George  the  Third  ;  otherwise  it  is  impossible  to  account  for 


*  See  his  "  Considerations  relative  to  the  JVorth  American  Colonies,'* 
printed  in  1765,  and  "  Jin  English  Freeholder's  Address  to  his  Country- 
men" printed  in  1779,  in  which  his  decided  opinion  upon  political  mat- 
ters is  manifested. 


# 


Vm  PREFACE. 

its  conduct,  unless  we  may  attribute  their  ignorance  to  judicial 
infatuation.  Were  we  to  descend  to  a  less  general  view,  we 
might  remark  that  the  monarch,  his  minister,  and  advisers, 
private  and  ostensible,  were  more  inclined  to  lend  a  listening 
ear  to  vindictive  refugee  governors,  contractors,  and  hungry 
expectants  on  both  sides  the  Tweed,  than  to  the  words  of 
truth  and  soberness ;  and  this  fatal  delusion  operated  the 
division  of  one  half  of  the  Empire  from  the  other,  and 
formed  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  nations. 

In  Franklin's  affection,  next  after  America,  was  England ; 
with  Fothergill,  next  to  his  native  land  was  America.  He 
had  long  studied  our  country  ;  his  father  having  visited  it, 
and  travelled  through  it  twice  at  distant  periods,  and  his 
brother  once,  with  no  mercantile  or  worldly  views  whatever. 
Fothergill  and  Franklin  were  patriotic  men.  Both  of  them 
wished,  most  ardently  wished,  for  such  an  union  between 
Great  Britain  and  America,  as  should  be  equally  just,  honora- 
ble, and  beneficial  to  both  countries  ;  and  that  great  Physician 
never  ceased  to  the  last  week  of  his  useful  life  to  urge  the 
necessity  of  Peace  with  America.  Hence  the  reader 
sees, — and  who  can  wonder,  that  Medicine  and  Pohtics  were 
mixed  together  in  a  young,  ardent,  and  anxious  brain,  far 
distant  from  his  suffering  country  ! 

Afler  recovery  from  a  slight  infection  caught  from  Thom- 
as Paine,  which  disorder  never  rose  to  delirium,  I  was  mar- 
vellously struck  by  the  Letters  of  Junius  ;  and  my  rapture 
increased  at  every  review  of  the  brilhant  and  weighty 
volumes.  The  high  and  noble  bearing  of  that  writer, 
seemed  akin  to  that  daring  spirit  which  impelled  the  Ameri- 
cans to  declare  not  only  resistance,  but  defiance,  to  the  gigan- 
tic  power  of  Britain, — an  inspiration,  we  believed,  like  that 


PREFACE.  IX 

which  emboldened  young  David  to  combat  and  prostrate 
Goliah.  Enough,  and  perhaps  more  than  enough,  has  been 
said  to  show  that  the  heahng  art  did  not  engross  all  my 
thoughts. 

My  mind  was  first  impressed  with  the  belief  that  Lord 
Chatham  was  Junius,  by  contemplating  the  high-wrought 
and  very  singular  panegyric  of  that  nobleman  in  the  fifty- 
fourth  Letter  of  the  work  in  question  ;  an  impression, 
which  time  and  reflection  have  deepened.  I  now  and 
then  committed  my  thoughts  to  paper,  and  looked  for- 
ward to  a  more  convenient  season  for  enlarging  and  arrang- 
ing a  premeditated  publication,  not  confined  to  the  valorous 
Knight  in  armour  of  polished  steel  and  closed  beaver,  but 
extended  to  other  men  without  a  visor.  But  that  time  came 
not  till  old  age,  with  its  dilatory  concomitants,  crept  insensibly 
upon  me ;  admonitory  to  others  not  to  put  off  a  literary  task 
to  that  late  period,  when  loitering  hours  are  wasted  in 
rumination,  rather  than  spent  in  acquisition. 

I  was  called  in  1783,  by  the  authorities  of  the  state  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  of  the  University  in  this  place,  to  commence  a 
second  Medical  School.  The  only  one  then  existing  in 
America  was  at  Philadelphia.  My  duties  in  the  complicated 
department  of  the  Theory  and  Practice  of  Physic  in  a  great 
measure  shut  out  politics.  I  performed  those  duties  dur- 
ing thirty  years ;  seventeen  years  of  that  time  I  was 
pleasantly  employed  in  rearing  the  hitherto  neglected  sci- 
ence of  Natural  History  amongst  us.  I  labored  Min- 
eralogy and  Botany.  Of  the  first  a  word  had  never  been 
uttered  publicly,  from  teacher  to  pupil,  in  this  country ; 
of  Botany  almost  as  little.  I  therefore  selected  and  broke 
up  the  ground,  and  sowed  the  seed,  and  left  the  easier  task  of 
b 


PREFACE. 


smoothing  it  to  those  who  came  after  me  with  their  nomen- 
clatures and  systematical  arrangements.  The  botanical 
branch  grew  and  flourished  like  Nahoth's  vineyard,  and 
shared  the  same  fate,  from  the  like  cause.*  As  to  Mineralo- 
gy, being  even  more  simple  than  Botany,  it  increased  sur- 
prisingly in  various  parts  of  the  Northern,  Middle,  and  West- 
ern States,  so  as  greatly  to  outstrip  the  knowledge  of  its  first 
promulgator  in  this  region.  His  original  intention  was  merely 
to  suggest  to  his  countrymen  to  be  no  longer  indebted  to 
-Europe  and  other  regions  for  riches  which  Providence  had 
bountifully  laid  under  their  feet.  The  instruction  in  these 
two  branches  of  natural  science  was  a  volunteer  service 
without  any  aid  from  the  University,  or  the  Government. 

These  things  occupied  my  mind  intently,  and  almost  en- 
grossed it,  when  a  sudden  and  unexpected  task  seemed,  if  I 
may  speak  so,  thrown  down  before  me.  When  in  England, 
I  had  never  seen  Dr.  Jenner,  nor  heard  his  name.  In  the 
year  1799,  he,  through  Dr.  Lettsom,  communicated  to  me 
the  discovery  of  the  prophylactic  power  of  Vaccination 
with  the  means  of  practising  it.  The  prospect  of  the  vast  im- 
portance, not  only  to  my  country,  but  to  mankind,  of  this 
discovery,  so  filled  my  mind,  that  I  put  every  other  conside- 
ration under  my  feet,  and  gave  myself  up  to  the  cultivation 
and  diffusion  of  a 'practice,  destined  to  withdraw  another 
evil  from  the  condition  of  man.  I  willingly  sacrificed  my 
private  business  to  this  great  work.  For  seven  years  I 
defended  this  salutiferous  practice,  in  its  disputed  march 
through  a  host  of  enemies,  till  it  attained  a  triumph  so  com- 


*  See  the  Botamist,  in  one  volume,  printed  in  1811,  dedicated  to 
President  Adams. 


PREFACE. 


plete,  that  throughout  the  six  New  England  States,  it  is  rare, 
very  rare,  indeed,  at  this  time,  to  meet  an  American  wearing 
in  his  face  the  marks  of  small  pox. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  thirty  years  of  my  connexion 
with  the  University  of  Canihridge,  the  evil  times  arrived, 
when  those  unruly  passions  rose,  from  which  come  wars  and 
fightings,  hard  words,  jealousies,  and  fears  ;  in  which,  let  a  man 
say  what  he  would,  write  what  he  would,  or  be  silent,  he  was 
sure  not  to  please  more  than  one  half  of  the  community. 
The  consequence  of  this  state  of  things  constrained  me 
to    dissolve  my  connexion  with  the  University  in  1812. 

The  President  of  the  United  States  saw  this  disagreeable 
condition  of  things,  and  following  the  example  of  his  prede- 
cessor, Jefferson,  gave  me  the  Medical  Superintendency  of 
the  nine  military  posts  of  the  United  States  in  New  England, 
with  as  much  indulgence  as  his  duty  to  the  public  would  ad- 
mit.    I  held  this  pleasant  station  from   1813  to  1820  ;  and 
from  that  period  have  withdrawn   myself  from  every  profes- 
sional concern,  save  epistolary  consultations  and  extraordinary 
cases.     From  that  time  and  not  before,   I  found  leisure  to 
write  "  Concerning  Junius  and  his  Letters  "  ;  and  to  read 
all  I  could  find  that  had  been  written  by  others.  The  result 
has  been  the  book  in  your  hand.      Not  that  this  engrossed 
my  mind  entirely.     I  found  time  and  inclination  for  making 
a  sketch,  too  long  neglected,  of  the  hfe  and  character  of  the 
great  and  early  file-leader  of  our  revolution.     I  also  attempt- 
ed to  wipe  off"  some  of  the  aspersions  cast  upon  the  greatest 
man  of  our  age,  who  died  in  the  full  belief  ihoX posterity  would 
do  his  character  justice.      In   the  estimation  of  characters, 
space  operates  like  time. 


Xll  PREFACE. 

I  was  convinced  that  people  looked  too  low  for  the  author 
of  Junius — among  the  weeds  and  shrubbery,  instead  of  the 
oaks  and  elms  of  Old  England,  or  else  I  magnified  the  produc- 
tion beyond  reason.       I  compared  its  style   and  diction  with 
the  prose  writings    of  Milton,  with  Swift,  with  the   precise 
Gibbon  and  Johnson,  and  with  the    luxuriant    Burke,    and 
thought  I  discovered  something  in  Junius  superior  to  any  of 
them, — a  personal  ardor,  a  feeling,  a  deep  experience,  a  self- 
conviction,  a  patriotic  enthusiasm,  and  a  martyr-like  devotion 
in  risking  discovery,  and  all  sublimed  by  a  fire  better  regula- 
ted than  that  of  Dante   or  Milton.     I  could  find  nothing  that 
amalgamated  with  the   best  Letters  of  Junius   but  the  best 
Speeches  of  Lord  Chatham. 

Furthermore ;  to  whom  can  be  applied  the  motto  of 
"  Stat  "  Ymagni]  "  Nominis  Umbra,"  omitting  through 
modesty  the  magni,  but  to  the  Earl  of  Chatham  ? 

Among  the  disadvantages  of  situation  in  writing  such  a 
book  as  this,  is  the  liability  to  err  in  compellation,  from  the 
changeableness  of  names  and  titles  of  members  of  Parliament 
of  both  Houses.  Even  in  relation  to  this  country,  now  void  of 
titles,  British  senators,  historians,  and  pamphleteers  frequently 
mistake  one  man  of  the  same  surname  for  another.  A  fact  of 
this  sort  that  might  be  determined  in  a  few  minutes  in  Lon- 
don, has  cost  weeks  of  inquiry  here,  and  ended  in  uncer- 
tainty. 

Moreover,  an  apprehension  exists,  lest  in  a  long  course  of 
years,  I  may  have  made  extracts  on  small  pieces  of  paper, 
backs  of  letters,  and  the  like,  and  in  the  lapse  of  time  and 
wane  of  memory,  have  forgotten  whether  they  were  my  own 
thoughts  or  those  of  others ;  and  this  is  more  likely  to  have 
occurred  at  a  recent  date,  than  at  a  remote  one  ;  for  reminis- 


PREFACE.  XIU 

cence  is,  I  find,  more  faithful  to  facts  of  half  a  century  ago, 
than  to  those  of  the  current  year.  But  this  error  cannot 
have  occurred  very  often. 

As  to  the  curious  popular  question — Whether  the  terrific 
man  in  the  mas'k  was  the  great  Lord  Chatham,  I  have  noth- 
ing farther  to  urge  here.  In  stating  a  connected  series  of 
facts,  I  have  laid  no  traps  for  the  understanding  of  the  reader, 
but  left  him  to  judge  for  himself — to  remark,  as  he  proceeds, 
how  the  parts  cohere  with  the  subject,  and  where  contrarie- 
ties appear  to  lie  across,  threatening  the  harmony  of  our  hy- 
pothesis. 

If  I  have  been  too  often  silent  in  regard  to  authorities,  I 
would  remind  the  reader  that  the  physician  is  more  in  the  way 
of  knowing  the  whole  interior  of  habitations,  domestic  char- 
acters, and  sentiments,  than  any  other  class  of  gentlemen 
whatever.  *  Dr.  Fothergill  practised  forty  years  at  the 
court  end  of  London,  was  Physician  to  many  of  the  nobility, 
and  most  of  its  old  families,  and  occasionally  was  consulted 
by  the  first  rank  in  the  kingdom.  His  prudence  and  delica- 
cy were  equal  to  his  wisdom  ;  yet  it  would  be  difficult  for  an 
affable  man  to  conceal  entirely  his  opinion  of  characters  occupy- 
ing different  ranks  in  authority,  from  one  who  prudently  sought 
information.  Nearly  every  night,  during  three  years,  I,  with 
my  transcript  Lectures  and  common-place  book,  sat  at  the 
same  table  with  that  industrious  philanthropist,  from  eight 
o'clock  to  eleven,  both  of  us  exercising  our  pens  in  our  own 
way.     Had  I  possessed  any  of  the  Bosivellian  ambition,  I  had 


*  See  the  correspondence  of  Lord  and  Lady  Cliatham  witli  Dr.  M- 
dington,  their  family  Physician,  and  Sir  Jauics  Wright,  relative  to  Lord 
Bute,  p.  3G7  of  this  volume. 


XIV  PREFACE. 

the  best  opportunity  of  compiling  a  Father giUiana,  which 
might  well  wear  for  its  motto  that  on  the  FothergiUian  Med- 
al  "  FOTHERGILLIUS.       MeDICUS.       AmICUS.       HoMO." 

Besides  the  heads  of  the  noble  Houses  of  Northumberland 
and  Portland,  the  Doctor  appeared   to  be   most  acquainted 
with  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham,  and  Lords  Camden  and 
Shelhurne.  I  never  knew  that  he  ever  spoke  with  Lord  Chat- 
ham or  North.     He  frequently  expressed   his  great  pleasure 
in  repeated  conversations  with    Lord  Mansfield,  who    was 
now  and  then  his  patient,  as  was  Lord  Chancellor  Thurlow. 
He,  more  than  once,  to  my  certain   knowledge,  made  written 
communications  to  Lord  North  respecting  the  real  state  of 
things  in   America,  during  the  war ;    and    received,  after   a 
week  or  ten  days'  delay,   very  respectful  answers  ;    but  not 
admitting,  to  the  full,  the   correctness  of  all   the  information, 
till  the  conduct  of  France  proclaimed  its  truth  to  all  the  world  ! 
Wisdom  can  draw,  even  from  such  a  book  as  this,  lessons 
moral  and  political.     The  reader  of  it  has  seen  Retribution's 
refluent  wave   passing  over  certain  individuals,  and  a  whole 
nation.     He   has  seen   that  God's  ways  are  not  like  man's 
ways, — that  He  makes  use  of  the  smallest  means  and  causes 
to  operate  the  greatest  and  most  powerful  effects.    "  In  His 
hands,  a  pepper-corn  is  the   foundation  of  the  power,  glory, 
and  riches  of  India,     He  makes  an  Acorn,  and  by  it  com- 
municates power  and  riches  to  a  nation."  * 

CAMBRIDGE,  NEW  ENGLAND,  1830. 


*  Bruce  on  the  Source  of  the  Nile. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

Preliminary  View 1 

CHAPTER  I. 

The  first  Impression  made  by  Junius's  Letters  in  Old  England, 
and  in  New. — The  first  Question,  Who  is  Junius  ? — Suspicion 
fell  on  the  Right  lion.  Edmumd  Burke. — Arguments  against 
that  Supposition. — An  Episode 7.5 

CHAPTER  II. 

Impossible  that  Junius  could  have  been  the  sole  Depositary  of 
his  own  Secret. — Must  have  been  past  the  Noon  of  Life. — 
A  Nobleman,  rich,  and  powerful. — His  Writings  marked  by 
Peculiarity  of  Style. — Their  Tendency  always  Patriotic,  and 
exclusively  English. — His  Letter  to  Lord  Cambden  different 
from  all  the  Rest 97 

CHAPTER  III. 

Of  tlie  Life  and  Character  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham 119 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Life  and  Character  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  continued    ....     133 

CHAPTER  V. 

Life  and  Character  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  continued    ....     150 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Life  and  Character  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  continued  ....     166 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Life  and  Character  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  continued    ....     175 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Certain  Difficulties  pointed  out,  and  discussed 196 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Stratagems  and  Subterfuges  of  Politicians.  Junius's  Co-operation 
with  the  Whig-Party.  Chatham  never  countenanced  American 
Independency.  This  always  maintained  by  Samuel  Adams  in 
Massachusetts,  and  by  Stephen  Hopkins  in  Rhode  Island. 
Sketch  of  the  Character  of  Samuel  Adams.  Independency 
never  lost  Sight  of  in  Massachusetts.  Conceded  by  the  Author 
— Confirmed  by  Chalmers.     Miscellaneous  Observations  .     .     .     235 

CHAPTER  X. 

Parallelism  between  Junius's  Letters  and  Chatham's  Speeches      .    261 

CHAPTER  XI. 

Notices  of  Lord  Camden,  Lord  Chief  Justice  Mansfield,  Lord 
Holland,  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  and  Lord 
Amherst,  in  Reference  to  Junius 305 

CHAPTER  XII. 

Transcription  and  Transmission  of  Junius's  Letters 354 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Character  and  Policy  of  George  the  Third 384 

General  Washington's  Resignation  of  his  Commission  ....  444 
Address   of  the   President   of   Congress  to  Washington  on  his 

Resignation 444 

Introductory   Audience   of   tlie    first   Minister  from  the    United 

States  to  George  the  Third 445 

Conclusion 449 


ERRATA. 

Page  vii,  line  23,  for  vats  read  vast 
"     111,     "    20,  dele  the  brackets     [  1 
"    271,    "     8,  for  mislead  read  misled 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 


Much  has  been  said  in  America,  and  more  in 
Britain,  on  this  celebrated  question, —  Who  was  the 
aiithGr  of  those  famous  Letters  ichich  appeared  in  the 
early  part  of  the  reign  of  King  George  the  Third, 
under  the  signature  q/' Junius  ? 

These  Letters  were  intended,  it  seems,  for  the  En- 
ghsh  nation  generally,  but  addressed,  most  of  them, 
nominally,  to  certain  individuals  of  the  highest  rank 
in  it.  They  were  of  a  character  to  attract  great  at- 
tention in  that  country  and  in  this,  by  their  facts, 
their  boldness,  and  their  splendid  diction.  They  first 
appeared  in  a  London  Newspaper,  entided  "  The 
Public  Mvertiser,^^  printed  by  Henry  Sampson  Wood- 
fall^  a  man  well  educated,  complete  in  his  business, 
and  of  discreet,  steady,  and  respectable  character  in 
his  profession.  They  came  forth  about  nine  years 
after  the  accession  of  a  young  King,  who  could,  and 
did  boast  that  he  was  a  native  Englishmaii*  and  at  a 
critical  period,  and  under  circumstances  which  gave 
them  great  interest  and  effect.  By  his  motto — Stat 
nominis  umbra,]  the  writer  stipulates,  with  the  reader, 

*  The  King's  first  speech  to  Parliament. 

f  "  Slat  magni  nominis  umhrn,''''  Lijcan  ;  He  stands  the  shadoiv  of 
a  mighty  name  ;  or,  paraphrastically,  He  exhibits  a  faint  image  of  his 
former  greatness. 

1 


2  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

concealment.  To  understand  his  design  clearly,  it 
may  be  needful  to  give  the  American  reader  a  gene- 
ral view  of  the  affairs  and  condition  of  things  in  the 
reign  preceding;  that  he  may  see  the  cause  and 
effect  of  that  change,  which  has  made  the  history  of 
George  the  Third  so  remarkable  in  that  country  and 
in  this  ;  and  which  forms  that  hnk  in  the  chain  of  our 
history,  which  connects  the  old  world  with  the  new. 
In  the  course  of  our  discussion,  Junius  may  appear 
a  primary,  or  a  secondary  object ;  for  the  mere  solu- 
tion of  a  puzzling  question  is  hardly  worth  the  labor 
we  shall  probably  bestow  upon  it. 

It  appears  from  the  best  moral  and  political  writers 
of  the  day,  that  in  the  latter  years  of  the  long  pro- 
tracted reign  of  George  the  Second,  the  English  na- 
tion, and  particularly  London,  had  gradually  shd 
down  into  an  idle,  vain,  luxurious,  and  selfish  effemi- 
nacy ;  not  so  much  from  absolutely  bad  traits  in  the 
character  of  the  King  or  his  Queen,  as  from  a  de- 
generacy of  manners  and  principles,  bred  and  foster- 
ed, as  some  would  fain  make  us  believe,  by  the 
celebrated  prime  minister  of  King  George  the  First 
and  the  Second ;  which  has  rendered,  according  to 
the  parties  to  whom  you  listen,  the  name  of  Sir 
Robert  Walpole  notorious,  or  honorably  famous. 

Who  but  He  who  made  the  human  heart,  and 
gave  the  secret  bias  of  the  soul,  shall  pronounce  the 
character  and  true  motives  of  Kings  ?  We  shall 
draw  upon  writers  of  the  first  reputation,  and  speak 
according  to  our  best  judgment,  being  all  along 
aware  of  our  liabihty  to  error. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  3 

George  the  Second,  by  birth  and  education  a 
German,  was,  it  appears,  on  the  whole,  a  good  man, 
just,  honorable,  and  brave  ;  but  poorly  fitted,  by  nature 
and  education,  to  be  King  of  Britain,  in  which  Island 
he  was  always,  in  a  manner,  a  stranger.  Being  past 
thirty  years  of  age  when  the  Hanover  succession 
took  place,  his  native  electorate  was  nearer  his  heart 
than  Great  Britain,  and  this  natural  partiahty  affected 
too  many  of  his  measures,  and  often  hung  a  heavy 
weight  on  the  machinery  of  his  government.  He 
ever  aimed  at  doing  right,  but  was  less  acquainted 
with  the  English  constitution,  laws,  politics,  and 
pecuhar  character,  than  with  the  policy  and  in- 
trigues of  the  leading  powers  on  the  continent, 
constituting  the  science  of  the  balance  of  power. 
He  said  to  his  favorite,  the  Earl  of  Waldegrave — 
"  You  are  a  very  extraordinary  people,  continually 
talking  of  your  constitution,  laws,  and  liberty ; — you 
pass  near  an  hundred  laws  every  session,  which 
seem  made  for  no  other  purpose  but  to  afford  the 
pleasure  of  breaking  them."  The  same  nobleman  says, 
that  "  the  King  had  a  good  understanding,  though 
not  of  the  first  class,  and  a  clear  insight  into  men 
and  things,  within  a  certain  compass.''''  The  celebrat- 
ed Lord  Chesterfield,  known,  slightly,  in  this  country, 
by  his  Letters  to  his  son,  tells  us,  "  that  George  the 
First  was  a  dull  German  gentleman,  who  neither 
understood  nor  concerned  himself  about  the  interest 
of  England,  but  was  well  acquainted  with  the  inter- 
est of  Hanover  ;  a»d  that  his  son,  George  the  Second, 
was   all   that,   leaving   out    the    word  gentleman.''^  * 

*  Chesterfield  was  Secretary  of  State  to  George  the  Second, 


4  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

According  to  Mr.  Glover,  a  member  of  Parliament, 
and  a  distinguished  literary  character,*  "  George  the 
Second  was  a  weak,  narrow-minded,  sordid,  and 
unfeeling  master,  who,  seated  by  fortune  on  a 
throne,  was  calculated  by  nature  for  a  pawn-broker's 
shop."  Lord  Waldegrave,  who  was  bound  by  the 
ties  of  gratitude  to  that  monarch,  acknowledges  that 
too  great  attention  to  money  was  his  capital  faihng — 
that,  however,  "  he  was  always  just,  and  sometimes 
charitable,  though  seldom  generous."  Mr.  Belsham, 
a  very  respectable  and  rational  whig  writer  of  a 
History  of  Great  Britain,  says  of  George  the  Sec- 
ond, "  that  equally  a  stranger  to  learning  and 
the  ^arts,  he  saw  the  rapid  increase  of  both  under 
his  reign,  without  contributing,  in  the  remotest 
degree,  to  accelerate  that  progression  by  any  mode 
of  encouragement,  or  even  bestowing,  probably, 
a  single  thought  on  the  means  of  their  advancement, 
— that,  inheriting  all  the  pohtical  prejudices  of  his 
father,  he  was  never  able  to  extend  his  views  beyond 
the  adjustment  of  the  Germanic  balance  of  powers  ; 
and  with  unsuspicious  satisfaction  in  that  system, 
into  which  he  had  been  early  initiated,  he  never  rose 
even  to  the  conception  of  that  simple,  dignified,  and 
impartial  conduct,  which  it  is  equally  the  honor  and 
interest  of  Great  Britain  to  maintain  in  all  the  com- 
pUcated  contests  of  the  continental  states." 

Belsham's,  we  think,  is  the  most  impartial  character 
of  the  old  Hanoverian  King  of  England ;  yet  some 
doubts  hover  over  my  mind,  as  to  the  exact  likeness 

*  Author  of  a  popular  drama,  entitled  Leonidas. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  5 

of  the  picture.  A  German  military  education  of  a 
Prince  has  a  direct  tendency  to  make  him  an  unfeel- 
ing despot.  It  greatly  injured  our  favorite,  the  Duke 
of  Kent.  The  High-German  character  is  at  a  greater 
distance  from  the  English  than  that  of  the  Low- 
Dutch.  It  is  evident  that  the  second  George  had 
wisdom  enough  to  perceive,  that  his  German  mihtary 
education  disqualified  him  from  governing  properly 
so  peculiar  a  people  as  the  British  really  are.  He 
therefore,  after  several  mortifying  occurrences  and 
disappointments,  allowed  his  minister,  Sir  Robert 
Walpole,  to  hire  his  officers  and  his  Parhament  to  be 
good,  as  he  had  not  either  the  power  to  compel,  or 
the  address  to  manage  them  himself.  To  bribe  men 
or  children  without  corrupting  them  is  a  very  difficult 
task.  Walpole,  however,  ventured  on  the  experi- 
ment ;  and  if  it  did  not  succeed  entirely  to  his  own 
and  the  nation's  wish,  may  we  not  attribute  it  to  some- 
thing else  than  wickedness  of  heart  in  the  minister? 
Nevertheless,  it  was  any  thing  but  true  wisdom,  a 
mere  temporary  paUiation,  as  it  not  only  produced  a 
lax  and  careless  government,  but  contributed  to  loose 
and  frivolous  morals  in  the  great  family  of  England. 
I  say  England,  for  Scotland  was  still  marked  by  her 
poverty,  characteristic  frugality,  discretion,  and  safe 
morahty. 

While  a  host  of  idle  gentlemen  were  looking  up  to 
the  King  and  his  Minister  for  immediate  or  future 
favors  and  rewards,  mental  energy  and  individual 
virtue  gradually  disappeared.  The  character  of  those 
times  (from  1740  to  1756)  in  England  was  not  so 
much  that  of  very  gross  vice,  or  profligacy,  as  of  in- 


g  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

dolence,  lack  of  spirit,  the  love  of  money,  for  which 
they  had  royal  example,  and  the  love  of  gaming,  all 
with  a  view  to  indulging  laziness,  ridiculous  pride,  and 
effeminacy,  evinced  in  the  vanity  of  dress,  in  parade 
of  equipage,  and  in  the  ostentation  of  title  and  of 
fortune.*  It  was  an  age  of  intemperance,  frivolity, 
and  self-indulgence,  rather  than  crime.  The  root  of 
all  these  enervating  evils  had  been  found  growing  in 
a  rich  and  rank  soil  prepared  by  Sir  Robert  Wal- 
pole ;  hence  he  has  been  called  the  "  father  of  cor- 
ruption." 

The  enemies  of  this  eminent  minister,  amongst 
whom  may  be  enumerated  the  famous  William  Pitt, 
drove  him,  at  last,  from  his  station,  when  he  took 
shelter  in  the  House  of  Peers,  under  the  tide  of  the 
Earl  of  Orford,  with  a  pension  of  four  thousand 
pounds  a  year.  This  shows  the  estimation  in  which 
he  was  held  by  his,  if  not  generous,  at  least  just  sove- 
reign ;  and  we  can  add,  that  he  continued  honored 
and  respected  during  the  rest  of  his  life. 

That  we  may  form  a  correct  judgment  of  those 
times,  let  us  attend  a  moment  to  what  was  said  in 
the  House  of  Commons  by  Mr.  Pitt,  afterward  Earl 
0/ Chatham. — "  None,"  said  he,  "  but  a  nation  who 
had  lost  all  signs  of  virility,  would  submit  to  the 
treatment  you  have  endured  from  France  and  Spain." 
A  few  years  after,  he  declared,  in  the  same  place, 
his  solemn  belief,  that  there  was  a  determined 
resolution,  both  in  the  naval  and  military  command- 

*  See  on  this  subject  the  Rev.  Dr.  Brown's  "  Estimate  of  the  Man- 
ners and  Principles  of  the  Times"  six  editions  of  which  were  published 
in  England,  and  one  in  America  in  the  year  1758. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW,  7 

ers,  against  any  vigorous  exertions  of  the  national 
power.  He  affirmed,  that,  though  his  majesty  ap- 
peared ready  to  embrace  every  measure  proposed 
by  his  ministers,  for  the  honor  and  interest  of  the 
British  dominions,  yet  scarce  a  man  could  be  found 
with  whom  the  execution  of  any  plan,  in  which  there 
was  the  least  danger,  could  with  confidence  be  trust- 
ed. He  instanced  the  inactivity  of  Lord  Loudon, 
with  his  large  force  in  America.*  Besides  this  gen- 
eral inertness  in  the  British  military  officers,  Mr.  Pitt 
said  that  indolence  and  neglect  pervaded  other  de- 
partments of  the  service  ;  that  the  contractors  and 
purveyors  were  ignorant  of  their  own  business  ;  that 
the  extent  of  their  knowledge  went  only  to  the 
making  of  false  accounts.  He  said  more  to  the  same 
effect  in  the  year  1 757.  This  was  a  condition  of  things 
most  mortifying  to  the  few  great  and  good  men,  who 
at  that  time  adorned  Great  Britain;  yet  it  was  not 
very  difficult  to  account  for  it. 

In  this  sad  state  of  affairs,  the  English  people  saw 
one  half  of  their  nobihty  and  gentry  waiting  for  the 
old  king  to  die,  while  the  other  half  were  gazing  with 
gladsome  faces  upon  the  heir  apparent,  Frederic, 
Prince  of  Wales,  and  his  more  energetic  spouse,  a  Prin- 
cess of  Saxo-Gothic  origin  and  education.  Two  sep- 
arate courts  were  kept;  the  centres  of  two  opposing 
parties.    The  old  king  was  the  nucleus  of  that  at  St. 

*  This  incompetent  military  commander  disgusted  our  countrymen, 
not  merely  by  his  haughty  demeanor,  and  contempt  of  our  soldiery,  but 
by  Jiis  manifest  incapacity  for  his  station.  See  Dr.  f)-ankl{n''s  Memoirs. 
The  Provincials  in  authority  had  feelings  towards  Lord  Loudon, 
like  those  of  the  Dutch  towards  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Elizabeth. 


8  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

James's,  while  his  hopeful  son  received  the  homage  of 
expectants  at  Leicester-House.  But,  to  the  confusion 
of  an  host  of  aspirants,  the  Prince  of  Wales  died  of  a 
short  illness,  in  the  46th  year  of  his  hfe,  leaving  his 
son.  Prince  George,  presumptive  heir  to  the  crown. 
This  unlooked  for  event  gave  to  the  two  courts  a  new, 
and  not  very  agreeable  face,  with  feelings  that  require 
a  Shakspeare  to  describe  them.  The  aged  monarch 
had  very  Kttle  affection  for  his  son  Frederic,  and  the 
prince  not  too  much  reverence  for  his  father.  The 
paternal  system  of  bringing  up  and  educating  children 
among  the  Germans  is  very  different  from  that  of  the 
English,  and  at  a  very  great  distance  from  that  of  our 
own  country. 

The  Leicester-House  Court,  which  had  obtained 
from  the  opposite  party  the  nickname  of  "  faction," 
was  not  better  assorted  than  that  at  St.  James's.  It 
consisted  of  men  of  singular  and  opposite  characters. 
The  most  conspicuous  personage  in  it  was  John 
Earl  of  Bute,  who  had  been  made,  not  without  con- 
siderable difficulty,  and  some  scandal,  groom  of  the 
s/o/e,  answering  in  our  language  to  keeper  of  a  prince's 
wardrobe.  He  was  a  Scotchman  of  handsome  figure, 
theatrical  air,  and  showy  accomphshments,  with  a 
measured  solemnity  of  manner,  imparting  an  im- 
pression that  it  was  not  recently  assumed,  but 
"  dyed  in  the  w^ool."  Mr.  Doddington,  afterwards 
Lord  Melcombe,  was  another  favorite  of  a  different 
stamp,  a  man  of  courtly  talents  and  phant  constitu- 
tion, unsteady  in  his  principles,  vain,  selfish,  and 
inconstant,  yet  very  useful  to  men  of  an  opposite 
character  ;  for  he  was  quick  in  discernment  and  ca- 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  9 

pable  of  giving  good  advice,  yet  a  gossip  withal,  as 
evinced  by  his  printed  diary. 

His  royal  Highness,  Prince  Frederic,  was  univer- 
sally considered  very  much  below  his  brother  next 
in  age  to  him,  William,  Duke  of  Cumberland,  the  fa- 
vorite son  of  George  the  Second  ;  for  William  was 
very  respectable  as  a  man  of  sense,  and  a  soldier, 
complete  according  to  the  German  system  of  rigid 
discipline  ;  whereas  his  elder  brother  was  deficient 
in  the  ordinary  dictates  of  prudence.  He  used  to 
discuss  freely  and  openly  with  his  adherents  the 
general  system  of  his  administration  when  his  father's 
death  should  call  him  to  the  throne,  of  which  he 
never  admitted  the  least  doubt.  How  unlike  his 
grandson,  the  present  monarch  of  England  !  "  Per- 
haps," says  the  historian  of  the  life  of  Pitt,  Earl  of 
Chatham,*  "nothing  ever  more  forcibly  proved  the 
uncertain  lot  of  humanity,  and  the  vanity  of  all  hu- 
man expectations,  than  the  plans  and  hopes  of  those 
who  regarded  him  as  their  future  sovereign.  His 
father's  years  exceeded  those  generally  allotted  to 
man ;  and  his  own  succession  to  the  throne  was  an- 
ticipated as  an  event  of  almost  daily  probabihty. 
The  poUtical  aspirant  already  fancied  himself  in  pos- 
session of  those  honors  in  a  future  reign,  which  were 
denied  to  him  under  the  present  sovereign." 

The  court  of  the  late  Frederic,  Prince  of  Wales, 
at  Leicester-House,  had  regarded  with  an  evil  eye 
the  old,  stiff,  and  formal  assemblage  at  St.  James's. 
Directly  on  the  unexpected  death  of  the  Prince,  a 

*  History  of  the  Right  Hon.  William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham.     By  the 
Rev.  Francis  Thackeray.    3  vols.  4to.     Lond.  1817. 

2 


10  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

new  and  strenuous  contest  arose ;  and  this  was  for 
nothing  less  than  who  should  get  possession  o? Prince 
George,  now  the  heir  apparent,  and  mould  him  to 
their  wish  and  will,  so  as  to  influence  him  after  he 
became  king.  The  ascendency  of  his  mother  was 
hardly  then  known  beyond  the  walls  of  the  nursery, 
nor  was  the  indirect  influence  of  Lord  Bute  much 
suspected  abroad.  The  Princess  Dowager  of  Wales, 
a  smart  woman  of  peculiar  talents,  partaking  more  of 
the  French  cast  of  character  than  the  English,  now 
incessantly  sounded  in  the  ears  of  her  son,  this  short 
maxim, — "  George,  be  King  ! " — that  is,  being  inter- 
preted, 'Beware  of  the  shackles  to  which  your  grand- 
father submits  ;  do  as  We  direct  you,  and  beyond 
that,  have  your  own  way ' : — and  his  own  way  he 
had,  until  the  nation  was,  as  we  shall  see,  on  the 
brink  of  ruin,  brought  thither  by  his  constitutional 
obstinacy  in  his  war  with  these  colonies. 

Before  the  death  of  Frederic,  and  indeed  after  it, 
the  aged  monarch,  his  father,  was  sadly  perplexed 
with  httle  factions  springing  up,  apparently  causeless, 
but  really  from  the  lack  of  diverting  objects,  which 
are  but  few  in  Britain  compared  with  France.  The 
King  and  people  were  pretty  constantly  haunted  by 
two  appalling  spectres,  one  "  the  Pretender,"  the 
other  a  French  invasion.  The  exhaustless  fund  of 
information,  amusement,  and  gratification  derived 
from  the  history  of  nature,  from  philosophy  gen- 
erally, from  the  study  of  physics,  from  polite  litera- 
ture and  the  fine  arts,  found  no  encouragement 
at  the  court  of  George  the  Second.  The  rich- 
est noblemen  of  England,  and  private  gentlemen  of 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  ]  J 

immense  fortune,  with  whom  Britain  abounds,  have 
not  the  adequate  objects  for  enjoying  their  personal 
wealth  in  their  native  island,  nor  the  turn  for  culti- 
vating their  minds  which  the  opulent  Dutch  have. 
Hence  they  leave  their  homes,  and  simple  forms  of 
religion,  to  roam  in  France  and  in  Italy,  where 
amusement  and  fashion  are  interwoven  with  the 
government  and  the  religion,  and  reduced  almost 
to  a  science.  It  was  apparent,  that  the  manners  of 
France,  Italy,  and  Germany  had  their  influence  in 
England,  while  the  spirit  of  Old  England  operated 
little  or  nothing  upon  those  countries.  It  was  just  so 
in  ancient  times.  The  opulent  young  Romans  were 
wont  to  stray  from  home  through  the  more  polished 
states  of  Greece,  to  the  grief  and  scandal  of  the  wise 
and  patriotic  Cato. 

The  sad  degeneracy  of  manners  and  principles 
already  hinted  at  was  not  owing  to  Italian  or  French 
influence  superinduced  on  a  Stuart  education,  as  in 
the  case  of  King  Charles  the  First;  nor  was  it  owing 
to  absolute  profligacy,  as  in  the  reign  of  his  immoral 
son  ;  but  it  sprang  from  the  root  of  all  evil,  the  love 
of  money,  combined  with  idleness.  The  gloomy  and 
chilly  atm.osphere,  which  settled  around  the  aged 
monarch,  produced  a  drowsiness  in  all.  Even  at  the 
royal  levee,  the  stiff"  old  German  monarch  generally 
"  stood,"  says  that  provoking  writer,  Horace  Walpole, 
"on  one  spot,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  floor,  and  but 
seldom  raised  to  converse,  only  dropping  now  and 
then,  a  bit  of  German  news.  It  was  more  like  the 
den  of  a  lion  than  the  levee  of  a  king."  With  due 
allowance  for  this  well  known  noble  snarler,  we  be- 


12  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

lieve  that  Lord  Orford  had  grounds  for  his  sarcastic 
description.  Now  this  behaviour  in  the  Majesty  of 
Great  Britain  was  not  from  pride  or  ill  humor,  for 
the  King  had  neither,  but  from  constitutional  phlegm, 
and  exotic  military  manners,  which  he  was  too  old  to 
throw  off.  He  could  not  be  affable.  His  very  par- 
tial and  affectionate  friend,  Earl  Waldegrave,  says, 
that  when  he  talked,  it  was  very  much  to  the  pur- 
pose, but  that  he  could  not  discourse  with  ease  in  a 
large  company.  It  was  a  misfortune,  it  seems,  the 
King  could  not  surmount,  unless  he  was  in  a  great 
passion.  I  say  a  misfortune  ;  for  if  the  chief  magis- 
trate of  any  country  is  not,  to  a  certain  degree,  cour- 
teous and  ready,  he  will  find  enemies,  where  he  htde 
suspects  or  deserves  them.  This  was  somewhat 
the  case  with  King  William  the  Third,  who  felt  the 
like  awkwardness,  when  called  from  Holland  to  the 
throne  of  Britain.* 

In  this  gloomy  condition  of  the  very  fountain  of 
honor  and  gallant  enterprise,  the  court  of  London, 
instead  of  being  a  beautiful  and  fertilizing  river,  like 
her  own  Thames,  changed  to  a  stagnant  pond,  the 
atmosphere  of  which  became  unpleasant  and  un- 
wholesome, till  the  famous  William  Pitt  broke  its 
scum  and  dissipated  its  deleterious  vapors. 

While  this  sluggish  state  of  things  lasted,  we  ought 
not  to  be  surprised,  that  gaming,  drinking,  frivolity, 

*  Is  not  this  embarrassment  more  or  less  the  case  with  every  man  in 
a  high  station,  who  has  not  a  complete  knowledge  of  the  idioms 
of  the  language  he  is  to  speak  in  ?  King  William  the  Third,  in  an- 
swering, extemporaneously,  a  loyal  address  upon  his  first  landing  in 
England,  when  he  meant  to  say,  I  come  for  your  good,  for  the  good  of 
you  all,  unluckily  said,  "  /  come  for  your  good,  for  all  your  goods  I " 
This  was  enough  to  shut  his  mouth  ever  after. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  13 

and  their  debasing  concomitants  lowered  the  charac- 
ter of  the  land  whence  we  of  New  England  sprang. 
Assuredly,  idleness  and  effeminacy  are  not  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  Britons.  The  spirit  of  liberty,  un- 
der most  of  the  Plantagenets,  "  the  barons  bold," 
who  obtained  the  Great  Charter,  the  unextin- 
guished fire  of  freedom  that  glimmered  in  the  em- 
bers under  the  reign  of  the  Tudors  and  of  the 
Stuarts,  the  flint  and  steel  of  our  Puritan  ancestry, 
all,  all  have  shown,  on  smart  collision,  how  great  a 
matter  a  little  fire  kindleth. 

Without  swerving  into  the  too  common  cant  of  the 
degeneracy  of  the  times,  we  must  acknowledge  that 
there  did  actually  exist  in  England,  from  about  the 
year  1741  to  1757,  a  lamentable  deterioration  of  man- 
ners and  principles,  especially  in  the  vast  city  of 
London.  It  was,  however,  a' favorable  symptom, 
that,  in  her  lethargic  condition,  the  renowned  capital 
and  the  whole  realm  felt  stung  to  the  quick  by  the 
keen  reproaches  of  Mr.  Pitt  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons ;  and  by  a  few  moral  writers  that  appeared 
about  the  same  time,  amongst  whom  shone  pre- 
eminent the  Rev.  Dr.  Brown,  a  distinguished  epis- 
copal clergyman.  The  pulpits  of  the  established 
church  are  not  remarkable  for  catechizing  the  court 
in  England;  less  so  than  in  Paris.  Dr.  Brown's 
book  ran  rapidly  through  six  editions  in  England 
and  one  in  Boston,  in  the  year  1758.  A  few  pul- 
pits in  Britain  followed  the  example  of  the  author 
of  the  "  Estimate  of  the  Manners  and  Prmciples 
of  the  Times.'"  The  most  glaring  vices  and  fol- 
lies of  the  day  were,  moreover,  met  by  the  keen 


14  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

satire  of  the  drama,  and  by  the  moral  pencil  of  Ho- 
garth. If  some  hung  their  heads  with  shame,  others 
started  back  with  aftright  from  the  mirror  thus  held 
up  to  them.  The  more  serious  and  reflecting  part  of 
the  inhabitants  of  Old  England  saw  with  mortification 
their  vexatious  condition  ;  with  an  aged  Hanoverian 
King,  a  stranger,  homesick,*  destitute  of  all  taste  for 
the  beauties  of  nature,  hterature,  or  the  arts.f  Of  mu- 
sic, he  relished  only  the  loud-sounding,  ratthng  peals 
of  a  military  band.  Not  altogether  wise  enough  to  gov- 
ern by  himself  as  King  of  Great  Britain,  he  was  not 
sufficiently  magnanimous  to  be  wholly  directed  by 
those  who  were.  On  ill  terms  with  his  eldest  son 
Frederic,  he  never  appeared  to  regret  his  loss,  while 
he  himself  was  not  correctly  moral  in  his  own  family. 
He  never  seemed  to  feel  himself  at  home  in  England. 
These  exotic  qualities,  propensities,  and  circumstan- 
ces conspired  to  form  a  thin,  perhaps  a  very  thin 
partition  between  him  and  the  most  correctly  moral 
of  the  old  EngUsh  nobihty.     The  men  respected  him 

*  JVostalgia, — Desiderium  patrias,  affiniumve.     Linn^us. 

f  An  anecdote  may  convey  some  idea  of  the  taste  of  the  second 
George,  and  of  his  relish  for  the  fine  arts.  When  Hogarth  painted 
"  The  March  to  Finchley,''^  Lord  Chesterfield,  then  Secretary  of  State, 
caused  the  picture  to  be  brought  to  the  King,  thinking  that  such  an 
admirable  painting  of  his  own  troops  and  subjects,  enlivened  by  Ho- 
garth's characteristic  humor,  would  delight  the  military  monarch,  as  it 
did  every  one  who  gazed  on  it.  But  on  viewing  it,  he  colored  with 
rage,  and  exclaimed,  "  What  does  de  painter  mean  ?  Does  he  dare  to 
ridicule  my  soldiers  !  Take  aioay  de  trumpery.  Defelloio  deserves  to  he 
pickettedfor  his  impudence."  Though  half  a  century  has  passed  away 
since  I  saw  this  admirable  picture  in  the  London  Foundling-Hospital, 
every  portion  of  it  is  fresh  in  my  memory  ;  the  production  of  real 
genius  in  a  man  capable  more  than  any  other  of  representing  on  can- 
vass, I  had  almost  said,  all  the  parts  of  speech,  even  to  the  interjection. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  15 

as  brave,  just,  and  of  good  intentions  ;  and  "surround- 
ed by  the  halo  of  the  solemn  etiquette  of  a  German 
Generalissimo,  he  never  appeared  otherwise  than 
dignified.  If  he  could  not  always  relish  the  refined 
wit  of  Lord  Chesterfield,  nor  entirely  comprehend 
the  pure  diction  of  Lord  Chatham's  communications, 
he  nevertheless  was  pleased  with  the  deference  and 
pohteness  of  both,  and  above  all  with  the  promptness, 
decision,  and  courage  of  the  latter,  as  will  appear 
hereafter. 

Besides  systematic  bribery*  with  a  laudable  inten- 
tion, Sir  Robert  Walpole  endeavoured  to  fill  his  sove- 
reign's breast  with  alarms  of  conspiracies  to  bring  in 
"  the  Pretender,"  and  of  French  invasions.  After 
that  minister  was  compelled  by  the  popular  current, 
and  Pitt's  oratory,  to  retire,  the  Pelhams,  Thomas 
and  Henry,  supplied  his  place.  The  latter  was  Duke 
of  Newcasde ;  a  man  of  a  singular  character,  and 
much  inferior  to  his  brother,  eager  and  impatient  for 
office,  yet  ever  dreading  the  dangers  of  it.  He  was 
at  once  abused,  flattered,  and  ridiculed,  yet  had  he 
good  quaUties  and  great  influence.  Earl  Waldegrave 
says  of  him,  "  In  the  midst  of  prosperity  and  ap- 

*  "  An  English  minister  wrote  to  Cardinal  Fleury,  Premier  of  Louis 
the  Fifteentli,  thus : — '  I  pension  half  the  Parliament  to  keep  it  quiet. 
But  as  the  King's  money  is  not  sufficient,  they,  to  whom  I  give  none, 
clamor  loudly  for  war ;  it  would  be  expedient  for  your  Eminence  to 
remit  me  three  millions  of  French  livres,  in  order  to  silence  tliese 
barkers.  Gold  is  a  metal  which  here  [in  England]  corrects  all  ill  qual- 
ities in  the  blood.  A  pension  of  two  thousand  pounds  a  year  will  make 
the  most  impetuous  warrior  in  Parliament  as  tame  as  a  lamb.' "  [Me- 
moirs of  the  Marchioness  of  Pompadour,  pages  57-59.  English  trans. 
1766.)  To  this  end  they  have  in  England  what  they  call  a  manager 
or  conductor  of  the  House  of  Commons. 


j0  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

parent  happiness,  the  slightest  disappointment,  or  any- 
imaginary  evil,  will,  in  a  moment,  make  him  misera- 
ble ;  his  mind  can  never  be  composed  ;  his  spirits 
are  always  agitated.  Yet  this  constant  ferment, 
which  would  wear  out  and  destroy  any  other  man,  is 
perfectly  agreeable  to  his  constitution ;  he  is  at  the 
very  perfection  of  health,  when  his  fever  is  at  the 
greatest  height.  His  character  is  full  of  inconsisten- 
cies ;  the  man  would  be  thought  very  singular  who 
differed  as  much  from  the  rest  of  the  world  as  he 
differs  from  himself."  *  Yet  this  whiffling  nobleman 
continued  in  the  highest  employments  nearly  forty 
years :  when  his  friends  were  routed,  his  Grace  of 
New^castle  still  maintained  his  ground  ;  for  he  offend- 
ed no  man  by  his  pride,  flattered  many  by  an  extrav- 
agant familiarity  ;  and  though  he  gave  bribes,  he 
never  was  suspected  of  accepting  them  ;  he  greatly 
impaired  his  estate  by  keeping  up  a  good  parliamen- 
tary interest,  and  he  retired  without  accepting  a 
pension. 

The  Duke  of  Newcastle  must  have  possessed 
some  quahties  of  an  able  minister ;  yet,  says  Lord 
Waldegrave,  "  Talk  with  him  concerning  public  or 
private  business,  of  a  nice  and  delicate  nature,  he 
will  be  found  confused,  irresolute,  continually  ram- 
bling from  the  subject,  contradicting  himself  almost 
every  instant.  Hear  him  speak  in  Parliament,  his 
manner  is  ungraceful,  his  language  barbarous,  his 
reason  inconclusive.  At  the  same  time,  he  labors 
through  all  the  confusion  of  a  debate  without  the 

*  Waldegrave's  Memoirs,  from  1754  to  1758. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  17 

least  distrust  of  his  own  abilities  ;  fights  boldly  in  the 
dark  ;  never  gives  up  the  cause,  nor  is  he  ever  at  a 
loss  either  for  words  or  arguments  ;  while  his  extra- 
ordinary care  of  his  health  is  a  jest  even  among  his 
flatterers."  * 

This  good-natured  Duke  of  Newcastle  was  prime 
minister  to  George  the  Second,  when  Mr.  Pitt  was 
paymaster.  But  the  latter  could  not  refrain  from 
treating  his  Grace  with  contempt.  In  an  official  con- 
ference, he  told  the  Duke  that  he  was  ignorant  of  his 
own  business,  that  he  engaged  for  subsidies,  while 
the  King  was  gone  to  Hanover,  without  knowing  the 
extent  of  the  sums  ;  and  for  affiances  without  know- 
ing the  terms.  It  may  be  asked.  Why  did  not  the 
Duke  dismiss  him  ?  Because  the  "  iiervous  "  minis- 
ter trembled  at  the  idea  of  the  thunder  and  lightning 
of  Pitt's  oratory  in  Parliament.  So  far  from  resent- 
ment, he  courted  his  favor,  and  sent  the  Hon. 
Charles  Yorke  to  secure  his  alliance,  and  tender  his 
sincere  friendship  and  entire  confidence.  Mr.  Pitt 
replied,  that  he  labored  under  the  King's  displeasure, 
which  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  ought  to  have  removed, 
as  he  knew  that  the  royal  displeasure  arose  from 
misrepresentation ;  and  until  that  proscription  was 
taken  off  he  would  enter  into  no  conversation  what- 
ever, either  with  his  Grace,  or  any  other  person  from 
him.  Mr.  Fox  (afterwards  Lord  Holland),  being 
informed  of  this  difference  between  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle  and  Mr.  Pitt,  made  a  proposal  to  join 
Mr.   Pitt  against  the   Duke.     Mr.  Pitt  rejected  the 

*  Waldegrave's  Memoirs. 

3 


18  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

proposal.*  This  anecdote  characterizes  the  men ; 
a  weeping-willow,  and  an  inflexible  English  oak ; 
one  bending  to  every  breeze,  the  other  haughty,  in- 
dependent, and  severe.  What  a  minister  for  such 
an  honest,  straight-forward  monarch  as  George  the 
Second !  I  will  not  risk  perplexing  the  reader  and 
myself  by  narrating  the  undignified  squabbles  that 
ensued.  I  shall  only  remark  that  the  aged  King  was 
left  by  the  eager  office-seekers  in  a  manner  that  de- 
serves the  name  of  barbarous.  He  complained,  even 
with  tears,  to  those  about  him,  that  he  was  ungene- 
rously treated,  and  that  none  had  conducted  towards 
him  with  proper  consideration  since  Sir  Robert  Wal- 
pole  had  been  unfeelingly  driven  away  from  him. 

To  this  discordant  condition  of  an  imbecile  court, 
we  may  add  the  unhappy  state  of  morals  in  every 
class,  as  painted  by  Charles  Johnstone  in  his  "  Chry- 
sal,  or  Mventures  of  a  Guinea,''^  at  a  period  when 
vice  disdained  the  mask  of  decorum.  Sir  Walter 
Scott,  whom  no.one  will  suspect  of  a  disposition  to  slur 
the  great,  says  in  his  Preface  to  that  work,  "  The 
general  corruption  of  the  ministers  themselves,  and 
their  undisguised  fortunes,  acquired  by  an  avowed 
system  of  perquisites,  carried,  in  our  fathers'  times, 
a  corresponding  spirit  of  greed  and  rapacity  into 
every  department,  while  at  the  same  time  it  Winded 
the  eyes  of  those  who  should  have  prevented  spolia- 
tion. If  those  in  subordinate  offices  paid  enormous 
fees  to  their  superiors,  it  could  only  be  in  order  to 
purchase  the  privilege  for  themselves  of  cheating  the 

*  Anecdote*  of  the  Life  of  the  Right  Hon.  William  Pitt,  Earl  of 
Chatham.      7th  ed,     London.     1810. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  19 

public  with  impunity  ;  and  in  the  same  manner,  if 
commissaries  for  the  army  and  navy  filled  the  purses 
of  the  commanders,  they  did  so  only  that  they  might 
thereby  obtain  full  license  to  exercise  every  sort  of 
pillage,  at  the  expense  of  the  miserable  privates. 
We  were  well  acquainted  with  men  of  credit  and 
character,  who  served  in  the  Havana  expedition  ;  and 
we  have  always  heard  them  affirm,  that  the  infamous 
and  horrid  scenes  described  in  Chrysal  were  not  in 
the  shghtest  degree  exaggerated.  That  attention  to 
the  wants,  that  watchful  guardianship  of  the  rights 
and  interests  of  the  private  soldier  and  sailor,  which 
in  our  days  do  honor  to  these  services,  w^ere  then 
totally  unknown.  The  commanders  in  each  depart- 
ment had  in  their  eye  the  amassingof  wealth,  instead 
of  the  gathering  of  laurels,  as  the  minister  was  deter- 
mined to  enrich  himself,  w'ith  indifference  to .  the 
welfare  of  his  country  ;  and  the  elder  Pitt,  as  well 
as  Wolfe,  were  considered  as  characters  almost 
above  humanity,  not  so  much  for  the  eloquence  and 
high  talents  of  the  one,  or  the  military  skill  of  the 
other,  as  because  they  made  the  honor  and  interest 
of  their  country  their  direct  and  principal  object." 

It  was  in  this  sad  condition  of  things  regal  and 
common,  when  the  monarch  dwelt,  in  a  great  meas- 
ure isolated,  and  passed  his  time  heavily,  ruminat- 
ing on  his  perplexities  without  seeing  clearly  his  way 
out  of  them,  that  one  of  the  oldest  peers  of  the 
realm*  quitted  his  retirement,  to  wait  upon  his  lonely 
sovereign,  and  confer  with  him  upon  his  affairs.    On 

*  Duke  of  Dcvonsliire. 


20  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

this  occasion  he  most  earnestly  and  respectfully  ad- 
vised the  King  to  call  Mr.  Pitt  into  his  service,  as  the 
only  man,  who,  by  his  superior  talents,  tried  integrity, 
and  overwhelming  popularity,  could  restore  things  to 
order ;  and  in  this  opinion,  he  was  joined  by  some  ele- 
vated characters,  who  had  not  the  most  cordial  feel- 
ings towards  "  the  Great  Commoner  j'''  as  he  was  called. 
This  was  a  severe  trial  to  the  aged  monarch's  tem- 
per, for  he  hated  the  very  name  of  Pitt,  who  had,  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  thwarted  him  in  most  of  his 
German  measures  and  Hanoverian  pohtics ;  but  he 
now  felt  the  necessity  of  comphance,  and  he  acqui- 
esced in  a  manner  that  ought  to  be  recorded  to  his 
everlasting  honor.* 

The  King's  aversion  to  Pitt  may  be  easily  con- 
ceived. He  had  infinitely  more  honesty  and  sin- 
cerity than  Charles  the  Second,  and  as  a  smiling 
courtier,  he  came  far  short  of  his  grandson  ;  for  if 
any  thing  disturbed  the  former  you  could  instantly 
perceive  it.  The  ministers  of  the  honest-hearted 
George  the  Second  always  knew  where  to  find  him. 

As  to  Mr.  Pitt,  he  was  naturally  haughty,  and  con- 
stitutionally and  habitually  overbearing.  His  impa- 
tience was  probably  augmented  by  his  gouty  diathe- 
sis. He  pursued  his  patriotic  course  with  little  regard 
to  the  personal  feelings  of  any  man,  and  he  could  not 
easily  separate  great  earnestness  from  harshness  of 
expression.     Being  all  mind,  he  had  an  exhaustless 

*  George  the  Second  suffered  an  irreparable  loss  in  the  death  of 
Queen  Caroline,  who  had  quick  discernment,  sound  judgment,  great 
prudence,  and  strong  attachment  to  her  passionate  spouse,  which  she 
exercised  to  the  best  effect  in  spite  of  Lady  Yarmouth's  influence. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 


21 


treasure  of  words,  and  when  excited  by  his  subject, 
he  generally  used  the  keenest  in  exposing  ignorance 
and  absurdity,  and  in  denouncing  avarice,  corruption, 
and  wastefulness.  But  ever  so  impetuous,  he  was 
always  honest,  always  patriotic  and  nobly  disinter- 
ested. 

Among  the  personal  friends  of  George  the  Second 
was  the  Earl  of  Waldegrave,  and  the  preference  did 
honor  to  his  Majesty's  judgment,  as  that  nobleman  was 
wise,  learned,  and  unassuming.  Through  him  the 
King  communicated  his  heartfelt  sentiments  to 
others;  for  the  vacillating  Duke  of  Newcastle,  who 
was  jealous  of  all  who  had  abilities,  and  ever  fearful 
of  the  consequences  of  his  own  steps,  could  be  no 
great  favorite  of  a  prudent  King ;  yet  had  he  great 
influence.  Horace  Walpole  (Lord  Orford)  thus 
speaks  of  his  Grace  :  "  At  a  period  of  detected  mis- 
government  with  regard  to  his  country,  of  ingratitude 
and  disobedience  to  his  master,  of  caprice,  duphcity, 
and  irresolution  towards  all  factions  ;  when  under 
prosecution  by  Parhament,  and  frowned  on  by  his 
Sovereign,  at  this  instant  were  the  hopes,  the  vows 
of  all  men  addressed  to  him.  The  outcast  of  the 
ministry,  the  scorn  of  the  court,  the  jest  of  the  peo- 
ple, was  the  arbiter  of  Britain !  Her  king,  her 
patriots,  her  factions,'^waited  to  see  into  what  scale 
he  [the  Duke  of  Newcastle]  would  fling  his  influ- 
ence." Walpole  must  have  transcended  his  usual 
style  of  vituperation,  or  the  Duke  must  have  cun- 
ningly distributed  gifts  and  litde  bribes,  wherever 
he  moved  or  meant  to  move.  Yet  this  nobleman, 
thus  characterized  or  caricatured,  appeared  to  his 


22  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

Majesty  the  most  proper  person  to  treat  with  re- 
specting a  change.  With  all  his  foibles,  he  was,  on 
the  whole,  a  meritorious  man.  He  was  a  disinter- 
ested patriot,  spent  a  princely  fortune  in  honor  of 
his  country,  and  retired  without  accepting  a  pension. 

The  nation  had  been  precipitated  into  a  war  with- 
out any  preparation  or  provision,  with  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle  to  conduct  it. 

On  the  11th  of  June  1757,  the  Lord  Chief  Justice 
Mansfield  was  sent  for  to  attend  the  King  at  Ken- 
sington, and  after  much  confidential  conversation,  his 
Lordship  was  empowered  to  negotiate  with  Mr.  Pitt 
and  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  ;  and  a  ministry  was 
formed  according  to  Mr.  Pitt's  arrangement.  With- 
out detailing  the  whole,  we  shall  only  remark,  that 
Lord  Temple  was  appointed  privy  seal,  the  Right 
Hon.  Henry  Fox  paymaster  of  all  the  land  forces, 
and  Mr.  Pratt  (afterwards  Lord  Camden)  attorney 
general. 

And  this  is  the  commencement  of  William  Pitt's 
GLORIOUS  administration,  during  which  the  power 
of  Great  Britain  was  carried  to  the  highest  pitch  of 
renown,  partly  by  the  coalition  of  three  heretofore 
discordant  parties,  but  chiefly  by  the  master-mind, 
and  the  extraordinary  and  honorable  popularity,  of 
the  great  Statesman  whom  the  King,  in  the  true 
spirit  of  magnanimity,  had  called  to  administer  the 
government. 

The  following  truly  sapient  sentences  were  uttered 
at  the  first  audience  of  business  between  the  King 
and  his  new  minister.  Mr.  Pitt.  "  Sire,  give  me  your 
confidence,  and  I  will  deserve  it."     The  King.  "De- 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  23 

serve  my  confidence,  and  you  shall  have  it.^^  Each 
kept  his  word  to  the  end  of  his  Majesty's  reign  ; 
and  the  nation  rejoiced  in  her  prosperity  accordingly. 

Behold,  then,  my  countrymen, — for  I  write  for 
you, — an  Enghsh  gentleman,  a  member  of  the  British 
House  of  Representatives,  a  man  without  title  or 
fortune,  suffering  under  a  cruel  hereditary  disease, 
liable  to  all  its  dreadful  recurrences,  a  cripple,  unable 
to  mount  a  horse,  wielding  the  destinies  of  the  first 
maritime  nation  on  the  globe,  in  behalf  of  an  aged 
and  passionate  monarch,  whose  highest  eulogium  was 
that  of  a  brave  heart  and  good  intentions,  and  who 
for  a  series  of  years  could  never  hear  the  name  of 
Pitt  without  visible  marks  of  anger. 

The  minister  had  an  Herculean  task  before  him. 
He  first  endeavoured  to  redeem  the  Enghsh  char- 
acter from  the  reproach  cast  upon  it  by  the  Wal- 
polean  system  of  bribery.  But  in  the  invidious  en- 
terprise of  reformation,  difficulties,  appalling  to  any 
other  man,  stared  him  in  the  face  at  every  turn.  Nor 
was  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  heartily  disposed  to 
lessen  them.  Pitt's  personal  character  and  conduct 
had  a  good  effect,  and  formed  a  striking  contrast  to 
the  prevalent  manners  of  the  times.  He,  like  Car- 
dinal Richeheu,  gave  no  dinners  or  suppers,  had  no 
levees;  but  kept  aloof  from  those  moths  of  time, 
health,  and  mental  energy ;  yet  not  a  measure  he 
suggested,  action  performed,  or  word  uttered,  but 
was  distorted  to  some  malicious  purpose.  He  had 
an  excellent  coadjutor  in  the  person  of  the  Hon. 
H.  B.  Legge,  chancellor  of  the  exchequer,  a  gende- 
man  of  distinguished  abilities  and  sterhng  integrity. 


24  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

The  next  object  of  Mr.  Pitt's  solicitude  was  the 
security  of  these  North  American  colonies  from  the 
encroachments  of  the  French,  who,  with  their  alHes, 
the  Indians,  were  making  an  alarming  progress  on 
our  frontiers.  He  laid  a  train  for  the  destruction  of 
the  power  of  France  in  this  new  world,  and  effected 
it  by  the  skill  and  bravery  of  Generals  Wolfe  and 
Amherst* 

At  home,  he  roused  the  slumbering  faculties  of 
a  then  luxurious  and  spiritless  generation.  By  his 
extraordinary  energy,  and  his  wonderful  powers  of 
eloquence,  he  excited  the  pride  of  the  legislature ; 
called  forth  reflective  reason,  and  directed  it  to  the 
reformation  of  manners  and  principles.  He  awakened 
the  army  and  the  navy  from  their  dreaming  indolence, 
and  inspirited  the  whole  nation,  too  long  sunk  in  the 
laziness  of  peace.  Lest  this  picture  may  be  thought 
highly  colored,  we  subjoin  what  has  been  said  of  the 
British  officers  of  that  day,  by  an  eminent  wTiter  in  the 
present  reign,  renowned  for  his  loyalty. f  "  No  science 
was  required  on  the  part  of  the  candidate  for  a  com- 
mission, no  term  of  service  as  a  cadet,  no  previous  ex- 
perience whatsoever;  the  promotion  went  on  equally 
unimpeded;  the  boy  let  loose  from  school  the  last 
week,  might  in  the  course  of  a  month  be  a  field-offi- 
cer, if  his  friends  were  disposed  to  be  liberal  of 
money  and  influence.  Others  there  were,  against 
whom  there  could  be  no  complaint  for  want  of  length 

*  The  conquest  of  Canada  was  earnestly  recommended  to  the  Earl 
of  Chatham,  when  Mr.  Pitt,  by  Dr.  Franklin. 

I  Sir  Walter  Scott.  Miscellaneous  Prose  Works,  Vol.  iv.  p.  291. 
Boston  edit.  1829. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  25 

of  service,  although  it  might  be  difficult  to  see  how 
their  experience  was  improved  by  it.  It  was  no  un- 
common thing  for  a  commission  to  be  obtained  for  a 
child  in  the  cradle  ;  and  when  he  came  from  college, 
the  fortunate  youth  was  at  least  a  heutenant  of  some 
standing,  by  dint  of  fair  promotion.  To  sum  up  this 
catalogue  of  abuses,  commissions  were  in  some  in- 
stances bestowed  upon  young  ladies,  when  pensions 
could  not  be  had.  We  knew  ourselves,"  says  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  "  one  fair  dame  who  drew  the  pay  of 

captain  in  the dragoons,  and  was  probably  not 

much  less  fit  for  the  service  than  some  who,  at  that 
period,  actually  did  duty  ;  for,  as  we  have  said,  no 
knowledge  of  any  kind  was  demanded  from  the  young 
officers.  If  they  desired  to  improve  themselves  in 
the  essential  parts  of  their  profession,  there  were 
no  means  open  either  of  direction  or  of  instruction." 
— "An  intelligent  sergeant  whispered,  from  time 
to  time,  the  word  of  command,  which  his  captain 
would  have  been  ashamed  to  have  known  without 
prompting ;  and  thus  the  duty  of  the  field-day  was 
huddled  over  rather  than  performed." 

If  this  was  the  case  even  since  our  last  war  with  the 
British,  as  here  represented,  what  might  it  not  have 
been  under  Lord  Loudon  in  America ;  and  under 
Admiral  Byng  in  the  Mediterranean  in  the  year  1755? 

When  Pitt  took  the  reins  of  government  the  officers, 
both  of  sea  and  land,  felt  they  had  now  a  new  master, 
acquainted  thoroughly  with  his  own  duties  and  with 
theirs.  With  a  keen  eye,  he  scrutinized  every  de- 
partment ;  and  breathed  into  a  startled  nation  the 
breath  of  fife,  every  part  of  which,  even  to  "  these 
4 


26  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

ends  of  the  earth,"  (characteristically  so  called  by  the 
London  Society  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel 
in  foreign  parts,)  felt  the  warmth  of  his  invigorating 
mind,  which  produced  industry,  regularity,  and  de- 
spatch. There  was  then  harmony  at  Head  Quarters, 
and  unanimity  in  Parliament.  Forty-four  French 
ships  of  the  line,  sixty-one  frigates,  and  twenty-six 
sloops  of  war,  were  taken  or  destroyed  by  the 
British;  and  with  them  the  commerce  of  France 
was  in  a  manner  annihilated.  In  about  three  years, 
Pitt  wrested  from  France  all  her  most  valuable  isl- 
ands and  possessions  in  both  Indies.  Nor  did  his 
victories  stop  there ;  he  prostrated  her  dangerous 
power  on  this  continent  by  the  entire  conquest  of 
Canada.  The  annals  of  no  two  equally  civihzed  na- 
tions afford  a  parallel  instance.  Prior  to  this,  France 
was  more  renowned  for  arts  and  arms  than  England. 
The  modern  language  of  Mars  was  the  French 
tongue,  and  we  ourselves  could  not  talk  properly  of 
the  theory  or  the  practice  of  war,  without  using  it. 

At  that  epoch,  the  w'hole  British  Empire,  in  all  its 
vastness,  these  now  United  States  being  then  a  part 
of  it,  included  a  portion  of  what  used  to  be  called  the 
Mogul  Empire,  with  many  islands  and  colonies  in 
Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  America.  They  all 
looked  up  with  grateful  admiration  to  the  Right  Hon. 
WilUara  Pitt,  as  the  origin,  fountain,  and  cause  of  this 
extraordinary  prosperity.  Beside  the  advantages 
derived  from  conquests  over  France  and  her  ally, 
Spain,  that  minister  had  the  everlasting  honor  to 
leave  the  late  thirteen  British  colonies  in  perfect 
security  and  happiness ;  the  inhabitants  glowing  with 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  27 

warm  affection  for  the  parent  country,  and  rejoicing 
to  see  riches  and  glory  flow  in  upon  her,  from  all 
quarters  of  the  habitable  globe.  This  was  the  acme 
of  England's  power  and  glory,  and  of  our  colonial 
contentment  and  good-humor. 

In  the  midst  of  this  unexampled  prosperity,  colo- 
nial contentment,  ministerial  cordiality,  and  kingly 
gratification,  George  the  Second,  in  the  plenitude 
of  health  and  ruddy  old  age,  dropt  dead,  as  suddenly 
as  if  shot,  without  any  previous  indisposition.  The 
cause  of  so  sudden  extinction  of  life  in  an  apparently 
healthy  man  was  accounted  extraordinary  among 
physicians, — a  bursting  of  the  heart.*  The  public  as- 
tonishment was  great,  and  the  first  effects  astounding. 

We  have  mentioned  with  approbation  a  well  writ- 
ten work  entided  ^^  Anecdotes  of  the  Life  of  the  Right 
Hon.  William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham;  and  of  the 
principal  Events  of  his  Time,  with  his  Speeches  in  Par- 
liament." This  modest  publicadon  without  a  name, 
was  evidently  countenanced  from  the  first  edition, 
by  Earl  Temple,  and  by  his  sister,  the  Dowager 
Countess  of  Chatham,  the  first  Lord  Lyttletojv, 
Governor  Pownall,  and  several  other  noblemen  and 
gentlemen.     The  nineteenth  chapter  opens  thus  : 

"  Unfortunately  for  the  glory  and  interest  of  Great 
Britain,  on  the  25th  of  October,  1760,  the  venerable 


*  A  rupture  of  either  ventricle  of  the  heart  is  very  rare,  especially 
when  there  was  no  violent  muscular  exertion,  or  mental  rage.  We 
may,  however,  remark  as  a  fact,  that,  in  our  medical  books,  there  are 
more  instances  of  Germans  dying-  suddenly  from  suppressed  violent 
passion,  than  of  any  other  people.  In  phlegmatic  habits,  it  is  apt  to 
sink  them  into  insanity. 


28  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

George  the  Second  died.  As  to  the  successor,  the 
effects  of  the  wickedness  of  his  advisers  have  been, 
and  are  still,  too  deeply  felt  to  be  described  in  any 
terms  adequate  to  the  injuries  committed.  Posterity, 
in  a  subsequent  age,  when  truth  may  be  spoken,  and 
the  motives  of  men  laid  open,  will  be  astonished  at 
the  conduct  of  their  ancestors  at  this  period."  Leav- 
ing opinions,  let  us  return  to  facts. 

When  Frederic,  Prince  of  Wales,  died  (in  1751), 
he  left  behind  a  little  fretful  court  where  vegetated, 
in  a  hot-bed  of  toryism,  his  son  Prince  George,  ihe 
future  King  of  England.  To  this  picture  we  must 
add  the  figure  of  a  Saxo-Gothic  Princess  Dowager 
of  Wales,  smiling  in  her  weeds  with  the  hope  of  re- 
taining under  her  entire  influence  this  her  eldest 
son,  that  she  might  govern  him  as  heretofore,  after 
he  should  become  king.  This  is  the  woman  whom 
the  indignant  Junius  called  the  Daemon  of  Discord, 
who  watched  with  a  kind  of  providential  malignity 
over  the  work  of  her  hands,  to  correct,  improve,  and 
preserve  it.  "  I  consider  her,"  says  that  caustic 
writer,  "  not  only  as  the  original  creating  cause  of 
the  shameful  and  deplorable  condition  of  this  coun- 
try, but  as  a  being  whose  operation  is  uniform  and 
permanent."  * 

The  Earl  of  Waldegrave,  Governor  to  Prince 
George,  informs  us,  that  in  the  year  1755,  !  after 
George  the  Second  returned  from  Hanover,  where  he 
went  almost  every  year,  he  sent  for  the  Prince  of 
Wales  into  his  closet,   to  find  out  the  extent  of  his 

*  Letter  Ixxxvii,  17th  Jan.  1771,  under  the  signature  of  Domitian, 
recognised  by  Junius  to  Mr.  Woodfall. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  29 

political  knowledge,  to  sift  him  in  relation  to  Hano- 
ver, and  to  caution  him  against  evil  counsellors  ;  that 
the  discourse  was  short,  the  substance  kind  and  af- 
fectionate, but  the  manner  not  quite  gracious  ;  that 
the  Prince  was  flustered  and  sulky ;  bowed,  but 
scarce  made  any  answer;  so  the  conference  ended, 
very  little  to  the  satisfaction  of  either  party.  The 
judicious  Lord  Waldegrave  tacks  to  the  anecdote 
this  remark  : — "  Here  his  Majesty  was  guilty  of  a 
very  capital  mistake ;  instead  of  sending  for  the 
Prince,  he  should  have  spoken  firmly  to  the  mother ; 
told  her,  that  as  she  governed  her  son,  she  should  be 
answerable  for  his  conduct ;  that  he  would  overlook 
what  was  past,  and  treat  her  still  like  a  friend,  if  she 
behaved  in  a  proper  manner ;  but,  on  the  other  hand, 
if  either  herself,  her  son,  or  any  person  influenced 
by  them,  should  give  any  future  disturbance,  she 
must  expect  no  quarter."  To  which,  the  noble 
Governor  subjoins  this  cutting  sentence : — "  He 
might  then  have  ended  his  admonition,  by  whisper- 
ing a  word  in  her  ear,  which  would  have  made  her 
tremble,  in  spite  of  her  spotless  innocence.''^  * 

Mr.  Nichols  tells  us,  that  Lord  Camden,  at  that 
time,  Mr.  Attorney  General  Pratt,  said  to  his  father, 
(who  was  physician  in  ordinary  to  George  the  Sec- 
ond,)— "  I  see.  Doctor,  already,  that  this  will  be  a 
weak  and  inglorious  reign."  That  illustrious  noble- 
man and  eminent  lawyer,  the  intimate  and  dear  friend 
of  Lord  Chatham,  lived  to  see  and  to  feel  his  pre- 
diction amply  verified ;  yet  was  this  unpromising 
Prince  George  destined   to  be  the  long-lived  king  of 

*  Lord  Waldegrave's  Memoirs,  p.  51, 


30  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

the  Britons,  the  Irish,  and  of  a  great  portion  of  the 
Eastern  and  Western  world;  and  to  occupy,  by  his 
misfortunes,  an  uncommonly  large  space  in  English 
history. 

The  Leicester-House  faction,  or  fragments  of  the 
late  systematized  opposition,  worked  with  redoubled 
diligence  after  the  death  of  the  King  in  sowing  the 
seeds  of  ambition  and  mischief,  which  taking  root  in  a 
congenial  soil  produced  a  baleful  fruit,  that  first  poi- 
soned the  obstinate  mind  of  George  the  Third,  and 
finally  destroyed  it.  The  evil  had  been  engendering  as 
far  back  as  the  ^^  glorious  year  fifty -nine '^ ;  when  Par- 
liament were  unanimous  in  favor  of  all  Pitt's  war- 
like measures,  and  the  British  arms  every  where  vic- 
torious. We  need  not  say  that  he  was  the  object  of 
envy  and  hatred.  It  followed  of  course  in  a  mind 
marked  by  a  strong  will  and  weak  judgment.  The 
evil  or  inflamed  eye  was  pained  by  Pitt's  dazzhng 
brightness,  and  it  was  resolved  to  eclipse  it  by  the 
intervention  of  Lord  Bute ;  accordingly  this  Scotch 
nobleman  was  pushed  forward  and  promoted  in  so 
extraordinary  a  manner,  that  he  soon  obtained  the 
odious  name  of  Favorite. 

There  were  very  few  signs  of  cordiality  between 
Frederic,  Prince  of  Wales,  and  his  German  spouse. 
He  was  not  a  man  of  talents,  nor  studious  of  the 
British  constitution.  He  w^as  not  a  bad  man.  "  He 
amassed  no  private  treasures,  nor  adopted  any  sinis- 
ter advice  with  a  view  to  obtain  them  ;  he  was  not 
insane,  nor  under  the  private  tuition  of  the  Prin- 
cess." *      This  exalted  lady  had   the  reputation  of 


*  Anecdotes  of  the  Life  of  Chatham,  chap.  8. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  3  J 

first-rate  understanding,  by  those  who  knew  her 
not.  Lord  Waldegrave,  who,  from  his  station,  must 
have  known  her  perfectly,  says  she  was  "  one  of 
those  moderate  geniuses,  who,  with  much  dissimula- 
tion, a  civil  address,  an  assenting  conversation,  and 
few  ideas  of  their  own,  can  act  with  tolerable  propri- 
ety, as  long  as  they  are  conducted  by  wise  and  pru- 
dent counsellors."  He  adds  that  she  retained  all  the 
jealousy  which  divided  the  royal  family  during  the 
life  of  her  husband ;  dreading  the  power  of  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland,  and  hating  him  as  much  as  she  feared 
him."  *  The  Favorite  was  thought  to  have  a  very 
natural  hatred  towards  "  the  hero  of  Cultodcn,'^  the 
greatly  beloved  son  of  the  late  monarch.  A  curious 
anecdote  may  illustrate  all  that  we  have  said  of 
the  cabal  at  Leicester-House.  His  Royal  High- 
ness the  Duke  of  Cumherland  invited  his  nephew 
Prince  George,  when  a  youth  of  fourteen,  to  spend 
a  day  at  his  residence,  when  he  sought  by  various 
means  to  gratify  and  amuse  him.  After  showing  him 
pictures,  books,  and  articles  of  curiosity,  he  took  him 
into  a  kind  of  epitomized  armory,  where  were  bows 
and  arrows,  and  halberts,  elegant  muskets  and  pis- 
tols, and  variously  formed  swords  of  different  nations  ; 
one,  more  splendid  than  the  rest,  he  took  down  to 
show  his  nephew,  on  account  of  its  richness  and 
brightness  ;  on  drawing  it  out  of  its  sheath,  the  boy 
screamed  as  if  he  would  go  into  fits ;  fell  on  his 
knees,  and  in  an  agony  of  tears,  begged  his  uncle  not 
to  kill  him.  The  Duke  stood  petrified  with  astonish- 
ment and  mortification  ;  as  well  he  might.     As  soon 

*  Lord  Waldegrave's  Memoirs. 


32  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

as  the  royal  youth  became  sufficiently  composed 
from  his  fright,  the  Duke  accompanied  him  home 
to  his  mother ;  but  not  without  communicating^ 
the  disagreeable  occurrence,  and  inquiring  whether 
the  terror  of  Prince  George  arose  from  a  natural 
timidity,  or  from  his  education  and  transient  conver- 
sation. 

Although  a  child,  I  remember  the  period  of  the 
death  of  King  George  the  Second,  and  the  very 
high  expectations  entertained  of  his  successor,  '  the 
British  horn  King"  We,  in  New  England,  were 
taught  to  believe  that  George  the  Third  was  a  re- 
markably sober,  virtuous,  and  pious  young  man.  On 
his  accession  to  the  throne,  our  pulpits  hailed  him  as 
such  ;  and  the  University  in  this  place,  the  oldest  in 
America,  and  justly  deemed  in  that  day  the  very 
heart  of  New  England,  poured  forth  its  condolence, 
praises,  gratulations,  and  expectations,  in  Enghsh 
prose,  and  Greek  and  Latin  verse,  making  a  consid- 
erable volume,  which  was  presented  to  his  sacred 
Majesty  by  the  colony  agent,  and  most  graciously 
received.* 

*  The  neat  volume  was  entitled  Pietas  et  Gratulatio  Collegii 
Cantabrigiensis  apud  Novanglos.  Bostoni,  Massachusettensium. 
Typis  J.  Green  &  J.  Russell.     4to.    1761. 

The  prefatory  address  to  the  young'  king  was  sufficiently  high  seasoned 
to  be  relished  by  any  of  the  Stuart  race,  if  not  by  the  last  of  the  Tudors.* 
The  College  availed  itself  of  this  apparently  auspicious  opportunity  to  ask 
his  Majesty  to  extend  his  royal  bounty  to  help  and  encourage  their  infant 
seminary.  To  which  they  received  this  courtly  answer  ;  that  "  a  Col- 
lege capable  of  jjroducing  such  a  specimen  of  genius  and  learning, 
stood  in  no  need  of  help  from  England."  A  brilliant  spark,  struck 
out  by  Jlint  and  steel ; — John  Bull,  and  Jonathan ; — an  Episcopalian 
and  a  Presbyterian !  The  English  government,  since  the  accession  of 
■  See  Appendix,  A. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  33 

Whatever  may  have  been  said  of  the  obduracy  of 
George  the  Third,  or  insinuated  respecting  his  sin- 
cerity, all  must  allow  that  his  behaviour  during  his 
youthful  minority  was  morally  correct.  It  is  an 
awkward,  trying,  and  dangerous  period  to  an  heir 
apparent  or  presumptive,  roaming  between  dayhght 
and  dark  amidst  enemies,  under  which  head  we 
class  all  flatterers.  In  this  state  of  ambiguity  not  a 
few  have  lost  their  way,  from  the  Plantagenets  to  the 
last  of  the  Stuarts.  Several  expectant  kings  among 
the  British  Princes  have  filled  up  this  irksome  space 
with  disgraceful  dissipation.  Their  education  has 
been  more  strict  and  more  military  since  the  revolu- 
tion. Yet  it  remains  a  question,  whether  the  gov- 
ernors and  instructors  of  the  princes  of  the  House  of 
Brunswick  surpassed  the  ancient  Magi  in  the  faculty 
of  teaching  princes  to  instruct  themselves,  by  means 
of  ingenious  and  happily  adapted  allegories,  selected 
from  the  unceasing  operations  of  nature,  discernible 
every  where  in  the  economy  of  the  mundane  system, 
and  throughout  lower  creation.  Instead  of  studying 
the  balance  of  power,  the  extent  of  George  the  Sec- 
ond's pohtical  knowledge,  those  ancient  moral  phi- 
losophers, made  from  the  frame  of  visible  nature,  a 
mirror  for  the  government  of  a  kingdom,  and  thus 
gave  wholesome  lessons  from  the  material  world  to 
regulate  the  moral  and  political  one.  George  the 
Third  appears,  from  his  conduct  towards  America, 
never  to  have  been  instructed  in  this  book  of  wis- 

George  the  Third,  never  heartily  relished  colonial  precocity  of  talent, 
which  was  discernible  in  tliis  little  volume,  and  spoken  of  in  that  strain 
in  the  London  Reviews  of  17* il. 

5 


34  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

dom,  written  by  the  finger  of  nature  herself; — the 
irresistible  tendency  of  intellectual  and  material 
things,  and  the  common  operations  of  the  human 
heart,  seem  to  have  escaped  his  observation. 

George,  Prince  of  Wales,  having  no  rakish  seeds 
to  germinate  within  him,  passed  the  trying  period  of 
his  youthful  minority  chiefly  in  the  nursery  of  his 
mother,  and  in  the  conversation  of  correct  women  ; 
and  in  company  of  the  Earl  of  Bute,  from  whom  he 
learnt  princely  behaviour,  and  acquired  a  portion  of 
that  nobleman's  Spanish  stateliness  and  theatrical 
manner.  As  a  domestic  man  George  the  Third  was 
addicted  to  no  vice,  and  swayed  by  no  passion.  He 
was  not  a  weak  man.  If  his  objects  were  little  and 
injudiciously  chosen,  no  monarch,  says  Mr.  Nichols, 
ever  displayed  more  dexterity  in  his  choice  of  means 
to  obtain  those  objects.  Nor  can  any  thing  be  more 
just  than  the  sentiments  of  the  same  gentleman  re- 
specting the  Princess  Dowager,  when  he  says,  "  The 
mother  of  George  the  Third  had  formed  her  ideas 
of  sovereign  power  at  the  court  of  her  father,  and 
she  could  never  bring  herself  to  be  of  opinion,  that 
sovereignty  should  be  exercised  in  Great  Britain  in 
a  manner  different  from  that  in  which  she  had  seen 
it  exercised  at  her  father's  court.  In  Saxe-Gotha, 
the  sovereignty  is  property ;  in  Great  Britain,  it  is 
magistracy.  There,  the  sovereign's  personal  wish- 
es and  opinions  are  to  be  obeyed,  and  he  is  his 
own  minister.  In  Great  Britain  the  sovereign  is  to 
choose  for  his  ministers  those  whom  he  thinks  most 
qualified  to  advise  measures  beneficial  to  the  coun- 
try.    If  he  does  not  approve  of  the  measures  they 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  35 

recommend,  he  may  remove  his  ministers  and  ap- 
point others  ;  but  whatever  measures  are  carried 
into  effect,  the  advisers,  ought  not  only  to  be  re- 
sponsible, but  distinctly  known,  and  recognised  as 
the  advisers.*  This  is  not  an  opinion,  which  has 
been  only  theoretically  adopted  by  those  who  have 
treated  of  the  English  constitution  ;  it  has  been  ex- 
phcitly  declared  in  parhament."  f  Yet  George  the 
Third  never  adhered  to  it.  Christina,  the  learned 
Queen  of  Sweden,  said  that  "  the  world  was  de- 
ceived when  it  supposed  that  Princes  are  governed 
by  their  ministers.  However  weak  a  Prince  is,  he 
has  always  more  power  than  his  minister.  Those 
persons,  said  she,  who  pretend  to  govern  Princes, 
resemble  the  keepers  of  lions  and  tigers,  who  most 
assuredly  make  these  animals  play  the  tricks  they 
wish  them  to  play.  At  first  sight,  one  would  imag- 
ine that  the  animals  were  completely  subservient  to 
their  keepers  ;  but,  when  they  least  expect  it,  a  pat 
of  the  claw,  not  of  the  gentlest  kind,  fells  the  keep- 
ers to  the  ground,  who  then  begin  to  find,  that  they 
never  can  be  perfectly  certain  that  they  have  com- 
pletely tamed  the  animals."  Do  not  the  history  of 
Cardinal  Wolsey,  and  the  threats  of  the  King  to  im- 
peach Lord  North  for  his  disgraceful  American  war, 
justify  the  opinion  of  the  philosophic  Queen  1 

*  This  is  not  the  case  in  these  United  States,  but  directly  the  re- 
verse ;  here  the  President  or  Chief  Magistrate  is  alone  responsible, 
and  liable  to  impeachment,  while  the  ministers,  or  heads  of  departments, 
are  not  liable  for  any  advice  given  or  measures  executed. 

t  See  "  Recollections  and  Reflections,  Personal  and  Political,  as 
connected  with  Public  Affairs,  during  the  Reign  of  George  the  Third. 
By  John  Nichols,  Esq.  member  of  the  House  of  Commons,  in  the  15th, 
16th,  and  17th  Parliament  of  Great  Britain." 


36  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

"When  the  Princess  of  Wales,"  says  Mr.  Nichols, 
"  came  to  the  Court  of  England,  she  found  the 
British  Sovereign  a  very  different  character  from 
that  which  she  had  seen  at  Saxe-Gotha.  She  found 
him  controlled  by  his  ministers,  indulged  in  petty 
gratifications,  but  compelled  to  submit  to  their  opin- 
ions on  all  important  subjects.  We  cannot  therefore 
be  surprised  that  she  was  disgusted  with  this  ;  and 
that  she  ever  after  impressed  upon  her  son,  from  his 
early  years,  this  lessson, — '  George,  be  King  ! ' 
And  this  lesson  seems  to  have  influenced  the  King's 
conduct  through  the  wdiole  of  his  life.  Extreme  ap- 
prehension that  his  ministers  or  others  might  en- 
croach upon  his  power,  an  earnest  wash  that  he 
might  exercise  his  power  personally,  or,  in  other 
words,  that  he  might  be  his  own  minister,  have,  in  a 
very  singular  manner,  marked  his  conduct  during  the 
whole  of  his  reign."  * 

As  this  was  undoubtedly  the  case,  how  could  it  be 
expected,  that  a  young  king  so  disposed,  and  so  edu- 
cated would  retain  for  a  prime  minister  such  a  rigidly 
just  and  all-commanding  personage  as  the  Earl  of 
Chatham?  How  to  get  rid  of  him  was  the  question. 
His  character  was  honorable,  his  abilities  transcend- 
ent, his  integrity  beyond  suspicion,  his  private  life 
spotless,  and  his  popularity  beyond  all  example. 

When  George  the  Third  came  to  the  crown  the 
administration  was  in  possession  of  the  Pelham  party, 
much  strengthened  by  its  alliance  with  Pitt,  and 
popular  from  his  successful  conduct  of  the  w^ar.  It 
was  perilous  to  attempt  to  change  such   an  adminis- 

*  Nichols's  Recollections  and  Reflections. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  37 

tration  ;  yet  the  King  and  Lord  Bute  ventured  upon 
it,  and,  strange  to  relate,  they  succeeded. 

Within  six  months  after  the  death  of  George  the 
Second,  it  was  deemed  unfashionable  in  the  first  cir- 
cles to  speak  in  terms  of  much  respect  of  the  late 
monarch,  whose  domestic  character  w^as  triumphantly 
contrasted  with  that  of  his  chaste  and  pious  grand- 
son. War  began  then  to  be  denounced  as  an  anti- 
christian  practice.  At  length  every  victory  was  called 
a  bleeding  and  dangerous  wound  on  the  nearly 
exhausted  body  of  poor  Britannia.  Pitt's  warlike 
ambition,  instead  of  being  considered  a  national  ben- 
efit, was  said  to  be  draining  to  exhaustion  the  finan- 
ces of  the  kingdom  ; — in  a  word,  that  England  was 
in  danger  of  ruin  by  her  victories  ;  and  this  style  of 
talking  became  polite  among  lords  and  ladies.  All 
this  gradually  explained  itself,  by  the  discovery  of 
Lord  Bute's  early  resolution  to  pull  down,  if  possible, 
the  mighty  Pitt,  who  stood  like  a  lion  in  his  path. 
Directly  on  the  death  of  the  late  King,  Lord  Bute 
betrayed  his  intentions.  "  Scarcely  was  the  ink  dry 
which  had  marked  his  name  upon  the  council-book, 
when,  although  no  minister  himself,  yet  he  assumed 
a  magisterial  air  of  authority,  and  began  to  give  law 
in  the  court ;  and  to  show,  not  only  with  what  con- 
tempt he  meant  to  treat  the  memory  and  conduct  of 
the  deceased  monarch,  but  his  dislike  of  the  mea- 
sures which  were  then,  and  had  for  some  time  been 
pursued ;  and  in  order  to  affront  the  ministers  and 
the  alhed  army,  he  invited  to  court,  while  the  late 
King  lay  dead  in  his  palace,  the  only  unpopular  man 
at  that  time  in  the  kingdom  [Lord  George   Sack- 


38  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

ville],  who  but  a  few  months  before,  had  been  de- 
graded from  his  rank  for  disobedience  of  orders, 
when  in  the  service  of  his  country."  *  But  in  spite 
of  the  baleful  influence  of  Bute,  of  the  Princess 
Dowager,  and  of  their  numerous  hirehng  writers, 
chiefly  from  beyond  the  Tweed,  the  fllustrious  com- 
moner yet  maintained  his  popularity.  The  Parlia- 
ment was  still  with  him.  He  stood  erect,  the  pride 
of  the  nation,  and  the  dread  of  her  enemies. 

The  renowned  kingdom  of  France,  composed  of  a 
wonderful  people,  if  not  ruined  on  the  ocean,  was 
driven  to  the  very  verge  of  a  gulf  leading  to  bank- 
ruptcy, and  that  chiefly  by  the  suddenly  collected 
energies  of  Great  Britain  and  of  these  colonies, 
wielded  by  the  mighty  hand  of  one  man,  too  de- 
crepit in  body  to  mount  a  horse.  Not  but  that 
France  had  been,  for  a  series  of  years,  predisposed 
to  deep  national  disorders,  having  endured  ignoble 
depressions,  according  to  the  testimony  of  their  own 
WTiters.f 

After  tvv^elve  years  of  supine  peace  under  the  reign 
of  good  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  France  was  gradually 
awakened  by  a  happy  influence  from  these  far  distant 
regions,  inhabited  by  the  descendants  of  transplanted 
Europeans,  principally  from  an  Enghsh  stock.  These 
last  were  educated  pretty  generally  in  the  behef  that  a 
Frenchman,    a    Spaniard,    a  Papist,  and  the    great 


*  History  of  the  Minority,  from  the  years  1762  to  1765,  4th  edition, 
London,  1776. 

f  See  the  History  of  the  Private  Life  of  Louis  the  Fifteenth.  This 
careless  monarch  died  the  same  year  that  our  first  Congress  assembled, 
leaving  his  people  little  reason  to  boast  of  his  virtue,  energy,  or  military 
force. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  39 

enemy  of  mankind  were  consociated  to  destroy  all 
that  was  good  in  morals,  holy  in  religion,  or  safe  in 
government.* 

From  between  the  years  1758  and  1762  France 
was,  in  effect,  conquered.  She  was  so  weak  as 
not  to  be  able  to  stand  alone  ;  and  was  therefore 
compelled  to  seek  the  aid  of  degenerate  Spain  to 
support  her  tottering  steps.  Through  the  mediation 
of  their  common  spiritual  father  the  Pope,  the 
court  of  Madrid  acceded  to  the  plaintive  request  of 
France ;  and  this  led  to  a  close  and  natural  alliance 
between  the  two  Kings,  or  rather,  three  Kings  of 
France,  Spain,  and  the  Sicilies  ;  forming  what  was 
called  "  the  family  compact,"  or  family  alliance  of 
the  House  or  Bourbon  ;  which  confederacy  bound 
them  together  by  the  triple  cord  of  politics,  kindred, 
and  religion.  This  famous  league  was  made  in  De- 
cember, 1761.  Mr.  Pitt  had  early  information  of  the 
design,  and  spoke  of  it  in  council.  At  length  he  dis- 
covered the  warlike  preparations  of  Spain,  and  not- 
withstanding her  asseverations  of  peace,  he  was  fully 
satisfied  of  the  intentions  of  the  insidious  court  of 
Madrid  to  co-operate  with  France  in  her  existing 

*  During  nearly  two  centuries,  the  people  of  Boston  and  of  the 
principal  sea-ports  in  New  England,  paraded  the  effigies  of  the  Pope 
and  the  Devil,  and  in  later  times  "  the  Pretendei;"  through  the  streets, 
and  at  night  committed  them  to  the  flames.  They  continued  this  act  of 
faith  {auto  de  fe)  every  fifth  of  November  from  an  early  period  in  the 
settlement  of  this  country,  until  the  French  fleet  arrived  in  the  har- 
bour of  Boston,  when  Samuel  Mams  thought  it  was  hardly  so  polite  to 
treat  "  our  great  and  good  allies,"  with  this  strange  spectacle ;  and 
the  populace  submitted,  as  usual,  to  his  opinion.  The  fact  shows 
our  British  education;  and  also  the  first  fruits  of  our  emancipation 
from  their  bigotry. 


40  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

war  with  England  ;  and  he  spoke  of  it  pubHcly,  and 
urged  strongly  the  prudence  of  striking  the  first  blow. 

This  treaty  offensive  and  defensive  sets  forth, 
that  the  motives  of  it  were  the  ties  of  blood  between 
the  Kings  of  France  and  Spain  ;  and  the  object  to 
give  stability  and  permanency  to  these  ties,  which 
naturally  grow  out  of  affinity  and  friendship  ;  and  to 
establish  a  solemn  and  lasting  monument  of  the  re- 
ciprocal interest,  which  ought  to  be  the  basis  of  the 
desires  of  the  two  monarchs,  and  of  the  prosperity  of 
their  royal  families.  It  contains  twenty-eight  arti- 
cles.    We  record  only  three  of  them. 

"  First.  Both  Kings  will,  for  the  future,  look  upon 
every  power  as  their  enemy  that  becomes  the  enemy 
of  either. 

"  Secondly.  Their  Majesties  reciprocally  guaranty 
all  their  dominions  in  whatever  part  of  the  world  they 
be  situated. 

"  Thirdly.  The  two  Kings  extend  their  guaranty 
to  the  King  of  the  two  Sicihes,  and  infant  Duke  of 
Parma,  on  condition  that  these  two  princes  guaranty 
the  dominions  of  their  Most  Christian  and  Catholic 
Majesties." 

In  modern  times,  did  ever  the  head  of  the  Roman 
Cathohc  Church  devise  a  stronger  connexion  be- 
tween kingdoms  than  this  triple  tie  of  kindred,  re- 
ligion, and  pohtics  ? 

Mr.  Pitt  said  in  council,  that  this  was  the  very 
time  for  humbhng  the  whole  House  of  Bourbon, — that 
if  this  opportunity  were  let  slip,  it  might  never  be 
recovered.  But  as  Pitt's  great  glory  grew  out  of  his 
successful  war  with  France,  Lord  Bute  knew  that  a 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  41 

peace  would  shear  him  of  his  beams,  and  diminish  his 
popularity. 

Lord  Temple  supported  his  brother-in-law,  the 
minister,  at  the  council-board,  while  the  Dulce  of 
Newcastle  sat  mute  as  a  mummy.  Pitt  declared  that 
he  should  no  longer  sit  with  them.  Thanking  the 
ministers  of  the  late  King  for  their  support,  he  said 
"  he  was  called  to  the  ministry  by  the  voice  of  the 
people,  to  whom  he  considered  himself  accountable 
for  his  conduct ;  and  that  he  would  no  longer  re- 
main in  a  situation,  which  made  him  responsible  for 
measures  he  was  no  longer  allowed  to  guide." 

When  Mr.  Pitt  made  this  peremptory  address  in 
the  Council,  Loi^d  Granville,  its  President,  replied 
thus : 

'*I  find  the  gentleman  is  determined  to  leave  us; 
nor  can  I  say  I  am  sorry  for  it,  since  he  would  oth- 
erwise have  certainly  compelled  us  to  leave  him. 
But  if  he  be  resolved  to  assume  the  right  of  advising 
his  Majesty,  and  directing  the  operations  of  the  war, 
to  what  purpose  are  we  called  to  this  council? 
When  he  talks  of  being  responsible  to  the  people,  he 
talks  the  language  of  the  House  of  Commons,  and 
forgets,  that  at  this  board,  he  is  only  responsible  to 
the  King,  However,  though  he  may  possibly  have 
convinced  himself  of  his  infallibihty,  still  it  remains 
that  we  should  be  equally  convinced  before  we  can 
resign  our  understandings  to  his  direction,  or  join  with 
him  in  the  measure  he  proposes."  * 

*  See  Annual  Register,  1761,  p.  44.     Anecdotes  of  the  Life  of  Lord 
Chatham,  and  Thackeray's  Life  of  him,  vol.  i.  p.  .592. 

6 


42  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

Lord  Granville,  highly  spoken  of  by  Dean  Swift, 
when  Lord  Carteret,  was  generally  thought  to  envy 
Pitt's  fame  and  talents.  He  somewhat  resembled 
our  great  statesman  in  his  oratory,  austerity  of  man- 
ner, and  self-sufhciency,  but  in  little  else.  Seeing 
the  wind  and  tide  had  turned  at  St.  James's,  it  is  not 
improbable  that  he  might  have  been  selected  by  the 
Favorite,  as  Hume  Campbell  was  in  the  House  of 
Commons  in  1755,  to  return  some  of  Pitt's  ^^  eternal 
invectives.''^  The  British  Demosthenes  annihilated 
the  latter ;  and  if  he  replied  to  the  President  of  the 
Council,  I  have  never  seen  his  reply.  Lord  Granville 
had  considerable  weight  of  talents  and  of  experience 
in  the  preceding  reign.  He  was  haughty,  intempe- 
rate, and  of  an  inflexible  temper,  with  a  short  and 
positive  way  of  expressing  it ;  yet  we  should  hardly 
have  beheved  that  even  he  would  dare  to  address 
Pitt  in  such  a  bitter  style  of  reproof.  He  said  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  reign  of  George  the  Second,  that 
the  King  was  surrounded  by  a  faction,  that  he  was  a 
prisoner  on  his  throne,  and  that  a  different  adminis- 
tration ought  to  be  formed  for  the  interest  of  the 
country,  and  the  emancipation  of  the  King.  We 
learn  from  these  anecdotes  that  every  sluice  was 
opened  to  sweep  Pitt  off  his  ground. 

'When  George  the  Second  died,  the  British  Em- 
pire, in  all  its  vastness  and  territorial  grandeur,  was 
hardly  second  to  that  of  Rome.  Its  matchless  com- 
merce bound  the  world  together  by  a  golden  chain, 
while  its  laws  utterly  abjured  slavery.  Every 
"  liher  homo,''^  to  use  the  words  of  Magna  Charta, 
was  protected,  encouraged,  and  controlled  by  the 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  43 

operation  of  printed  laws,  and  tried  by  juries  com- 
posed of  his  neighbours  in  open  court,  on  the  halls 
of  which  was  inscribed  Patet  omnibus. 

Then  all  was  vigor,  animation,  and  industry.  Rich- 
es and  glory  flowed  into  Britain  from  every  quarter 
of  the  globe. 

"  Gods !  what  a  golden  scene  was  this, 
Of  public  fame  and  private  bliss."  * 

From  this  general  view  of  things,  we  can  form 
some  idea  of  the  rare  talents,  and  extraordinary  mer- 
it of  Mr.  Pitt,  which  raised  him  in  the  view  of  a 
grateful  people  to  the  highest  pinnacle  of  popularity 
at  home,  and  fame  abroad.  Such  was  the  state  of 
things  when  the  old  King  died.  The  condition  of 
affairs  was  changed  after  his  grandson  reigned  in  his 
stead.  The  first  object  seemed  to  be  the  destruc- 
tion of  Mr.  Pitt's  great  influence.  In  the  defamatory 
pubHcations  of  the  day  (and  they  were  beyond  all 
example  numerous),  the  iflustrious  minister,  and 
all  the  old  whigs,  were  sneeringly  styled  "  Republi- 
cans,^'' an  unpleasant  denomination  in  a  monarchy. 
The  press  teemed  with  the  lowest  abuse.  His  life, 
public  and  private,  was  sifted  with  a  sort  of  diabohcal 
malignity.  The  successes  of  his  administration  were 
depreciated,  his  few  faults  monstrously  exaggerated ; 
and  this  at  a  time  when  Mr.  Burke  said  of  him, — 
"  He  revived  the  military  genius  of  our  people  ;  he 
supported  our  aflies ;  he  extended  our  trade  ;  he 
raised  our  reputation  ;  he  augmented  our  dominions  ; 
and  on  his  departure  from  administration,  left  the 
nation  in  no  other  danger  than  that  which  ever  must 


*  Ode  by  E.  Seymour  Esq.,  M.  P 


44  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

attend  exorbitant  power,  and  the  temptation  which 
may  be  to  the  invidious  exertion  of  it.  Happy- 
had  it  been  for  him,  for  his  sovereign^  and  his  country, 
if  a  temper  less  austere,  and  a  disposition  more  prac- 
ticable, more  compHant  and  conciliating,  had  been 
joined  to  his  other  great  virtues."  * 

Thus  expatiates  the  copious  Burke,  without  stop- 
ping to  consider,  that  he  would  have  been  no  longer 
the  great  William  Pitt.  "The  want  of  these  qual- 
ities," adds  the  same  writer,  "  disabled  him  from  act- 
ing any  otherwise  than  alone.  It  prevented  our  enjoy- 
ing the  joint  fruit  of  the  wisdom  of  many  able  men, 
who  might  mutually  have  tempered,  and  mutually 
forwarded  each  other ;  and  finally,  which  was  not 
the  meanest  loss,  it  deprived  us  [the  Rockingham 
party]  of  his  own  immediate  services." 

On  which  we  would  remark,  that  nature  cre- 
ates monarchs  even  in  the  brute  creation.  Among 
birds,  the  eagle  acts  alone,  while  doves  crowd  to- 
gether in  flocks.  Among  quadrupeds,  the  lion  acts 
alone,  while  sheep  congregate,  like  doves,  from  con- 
scious weakness. 

While  this  baleful  influence  was  operating  in  En- 
gland upon  that  class  of  the  community  which  in- 
cludes the  voters,  and  comprehends  their  representa- 
tives, hypocrisy  was  preaching  to  the  young  monarch 
against  the  antichristian  practice  of  war,  depicting 
the  horrors  of  its  multiform  cruelties,  and  contrasting 
the  barbarous  custom  with  the  evangehcal  spirit  of 
peace.  The  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  Dr.  Seeker, 
was  so  far  taken  in  by  the  then  fashionable  court- 

*  Annual  Register  for  1761,  p.  47. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  45 

cant,  that  he,  good  man,  exulting  in  the  pious  dispo- 
sition of  the  young  "  defender  of  the  faith,"  visited 
him  very  often,  and,  for  a  considerable  time,  really 
believed  that  he  should  become  his  most  inlluential 
counsellor,  if  not  spiritual  director.  At  court,  you 
would  have  thought  that  the  Princess  Dowager  of 
Wales,  Lord  Bute,  the  Dukes  of  Bedford  and  of 
Newcastle,  Lords  Granville,  Sandwich,  and  Barring- 
ton,  Bub  Doddington,  Charles  Jenkinson,*  and  Jerry 
Dyson  were  not  far  from  the  threshold  of  the  tab- 
ernacle. We  dare  not  add  to  these,  the  name  of 
Henry  Fox,  that  "  piece  of  pure  and  distinguished 
virtue,"  lest  the  reader  should  suspect  that  the  whole 
we  have  said  is  mere  romance.  It  is  true,  howev- 
er, that  this  old  friend  and  schoolfellow  of  Pitt,  was 
at  that  time  devoted  to  Lord  Bute ;  but  was  of  a 
character  that  disdained  even  the  appearance  of  re- 
ligion. Whether  so  or  not,  they  certainly  rendered 
that  sort  of  talk  fashionable  at  court.  It  caught  in 
subordinate  circles,  and  the  contagion  spread  to  suc- 
cessive ones,  until  it  met  the  inferior  distant  echoes 
of  the  bribed  electors,  and  the  abused  multitude ; 
and  thus,  from  an  imported  taint,  the  whole  lump 
became  leavened,  fit  for  the  plastic  hand  of  the  sec- 
ond-sighted chief  juggler. 

Mr.  Pitt  saw,  and  clearly  understood  all  these 
movements,  and  had  a  perfect  idea  of  the  construc- 
tion and  principles  of  their  most  powerful  engines, 
and  retired  from  them  with  a  dignity,  disinterested- 
ness, and  purity  of  character,  which  cast,  by  the  con- 


*  Mr.  Jenkinson  was  Private  Secretary  to  Lord  Bute,  known  of  late 
years  by  the  title  of  Lord  Liverpool. 


46  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

trast,  a  deep  shade  upon  that  of  the  very  rich  Sir 
Robert  Walpole.  It  is  very  difficult  to  conceive  how 
the  King  could  have  done  otherwise  than  make 
Pitt  a  peer.  Some  have  said  that  it  was  cunningly 
and  mischievously  done  to  destroy  his  popularity. 
If  so,  it  was  doing  a  very  natural  and  indeed  an  una- 
voidable thing  ;  and  if  it  had  in  any  degree  that  effect, 
the  great  man  might  have  said  in  the  words  of  his 
admired  author, — "  If  these  things  be  necessities, 
let's  meet  them  hke  necessities;"  he  did  so.* 

*  "  Clvysal,  or  the  Adventures  of  a  Guinea,''''  written  by  Charles 
Johnstone,  a  satirical  publication  in  1760,  and  announced  as  "  a  dispas- 
sionate distinct  account  of  the  most  remarkable  transactions  of  the 
present  times  all  over' Europe."  In  this  popular  work,  though  there  be 
now  and  then  ideal  touches  beyond  the  simple  truth  of  character,  yet 
every  anecdote  has  its  foundation  in  truth.  Facts  have  here  only  the 
thin  drapery  of  romance.  See,  to  our  purpose,  the  dialogue  between 
the  Jew  broker,  Aminadah,  and  Van  Hogen,  the  grand  pensioner  of 
Holland,  who,  inveighing  bitterly  against  the  English,  threatened  to  de- 
clare war.  The  wary  Jew,  just  come  over  from  England,  where  he  had 
long  resided,  tells  him — "  Matters  are  now  changed.  We  have  got  a 
manager,  who  neither  drinks,  nor  games,  nor  keeps  running  horses,  nor 
whores,  nor  lives  above  his  private  fortune,  and  therefore  has  not  such 
pressing  demands  for  money,  as  used  to  make  our  negotiations  go  on 
so  smoothly  with  others  formerly.  There  is  a  perverseness  of  the 
people  in  power  at  present."  Van  Hogen.  "  Will  they  not  take 
money  ?  "  Aminadab.  "  No,  indeed  ;  nor  does  the  boldest  of  us  know 
how  to  offer  it  with  safety,  it  was  rejected  with  such  indignant  rage 
the  last  time.  I  have  seen  the  day,  and  that  not  very  long  since, 
when  half  the  sum  would  have  done  twice  as  much.  Matters  have 
strangely  altered  of  late."  Van  Hogen.  "  What  shall  we  do  ?  Is  the 
whole  court  corrupted  by  his  example  ?  Are  they  all  infected  with 
such  a  strange  madness  ?  "  Aminadab.  "  No,  it  is  not  gone  so  far  as 
that  yet ;  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  example  of  a  few  will  not  be 
able  to  do  so  much  ;  and  that  when  the  novelty  of  this  humor  wears  off 
a  little,  it  will  go  out  of  fashion  insensibly,  and  things  return  to  their 
old  course.  This  is  supposing  the  worst,  that  the  engines  now  at 
work  to  overturn  this  new  set,  should  miscarry." 

It  may  be  said, — Why  cite  a  professed  satirist  in  an  historical  work  ? 
We  reply, — Why  quote  Juvenal  or  Swift  ? 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  47 

We  behold  him  now  Earl  of  Chatham,  into 
which  title  he  sunk,  as  some  thought,  the  great 
name  of  William  Pitt.  But  the  voice  of  evanes- 
cent pubhc  opinion  is  not  the  voice  of  History.  We 
in  this  New  World,  or,  to  speak  with  precision,  in 
these  United  States,  have  but  an  imperfect  idea  of 
the  venality  of  administrations  in  certain  kingdoms  in 
Europe.  Contending  parties  and  angry  debaters 
here  talk  of  corruption  where  it  never  existed.  It 
reigned  and  triumphed  during  a  greater  part  of  the 
hfe  of  George  the  Second ;  and  although  Lord 
Chatham  called  for  and  expended  vast  sums  of 
money,  he  never  enriched  himself  or  friends.  It  was 
all  for  the  nation,  for  the  increase  of  its  power, 
glory,  and  example. 

Although  Chatham  nobly  led,  ail  his  old  friends  did 
not  follow.  Not  a  few  of  the  opposition  or  minority 
did  worse  than  hesitate  ;  for  after  Lords  Chatham, 
Temple,  and  Rockingham  recoiled  from  the  iniluence 
of  Lord  Bute  and  his  associates,  the  opposition 
showed  how  much  their  patriotism  was  worth.  To 
show  the  value  of  it,  we  cite  a  paragraph  from  "  The 
History  of  the  Minority,  during  the  Years  1762-'3-'4 
and  '5."  "  A  point  so  highly  interesdng  to  the  sub- 
ject (as  general  warrants)  a  true  patriot  would  not 
have  suffered  to  remain  unnoticed.  But  the  fact  is, 
the  minority  had  neither  true  patriotism,  true  virtue, 
nor  common  honesty ;  for  they  now  showed  themselves 
to  be  hypocrites  to  the  cause,  impostors  upon  the 
public,  and  traitors  to  each  other.  No  party  ever 
was  so  truly  contemptible  in  such  a  very  short  time. 


48  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

"It  soon  became  obvious  to  all  mankind,  that  the 
sole  purpose  of  this  sham  pursuit  of  hberty  was  the 
possession  of  lucrative  offices.  Lord  Chatham,  see- 
ing of  what  stuff  they  were  made,  kept  aloof.  He 
did  not  attend  Parliament  during  the  whole  session. 
Lord  Temple  declared  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle 
and  others  of  the  party,  that  if  the  only  end  proposed 
by  opposition,  was,  singly  and  exclusively,  the  pos- 
session of  the  great  offices,  for  the  sake  of  the  sala- 
ries of  them ;  if  nothing  was  intended  for  the  public  ; 
and  if  they  would  neither  propose  nor  support  any 
motion  or  measure,  for  the  true  security  of  liberty,  and 
the  real  advantage  of  the  people,  he  would  not  lend 
himself  as  a  cover  to  any  such  principles."  *  Op- 
position was  now  entirely  at  an  end.  The  venal  part 
of  the  minority  found  themselves  detected.  Those 
colors  under  which  they  flattered  themselves  their 
designs  would  have  been  concealed,  were  now  with- 
drawn ;  and  they  appeared  like  a  fugitive  corps,  with- 
out clothing,  arms,  or  officers.  For  some  time  they 
wandered  in  this  desolate  and  disconsolate  plight ; 
and  at  length  finding  that  no  party  would  accept  of 
them,  they  became  quite  broken-hearted,  and  in  a 
short  time  were  almost  totally  dispersed. 

"  Such  was  the  fate  of  the  late  minority :  a  party 
which  had  been  originally  formed  for  the  best  and 
most  laudable  purposes,  namely,  to  resist  the  powers 
and  measures  of  a  mischievous  favorite ;  and  when 
he  had  been  defeated,  to  defend  the  constitution  and 
the  liberties  of  the  subject^  by  opposing  and  censuring 
all  arbitrary  violations  of  ministers.     These  w^ere  the 

*  History  of  the  Minority,  chap,  xxi. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  49 

objects  of  opposition.  The  first  was  in  part  ac- 
complished bj  the  JYorth  Briton.  But  out  of  that 
victory  arose  the  second,  which  was  scandalously  de- 
serted by  the  body  of  the  party  ;  who,  acting  wholly 
upon  the  temporizing  principle  of  making  their  peace 
at  St.  James's  as  soon  as  possible,  in  order  to  lose 
no  opportunity  of  getting  into  office,  were  never  in 
earnest  in  the  cause  of  liberty,  and  were  continually 
checking  every  measure,  and  betraying  every  man 
who  obstructed  their  selfish  and  interested  views. 
No  party  had  ever  such  admirable  ground  to  go  upon  ; 
and  had  the  men  been  but  half  as  good  as  the  cause, 
no  administration,  however  supported,  could  have 
withstood  them.  The  influence  of  the  favorite,  to- 
gether with  the  whole  fabric  of  Ais  system,  must  have 
been  destroyed  for  ever."  * 

That  Pitt  richly  merited  the  highest  honors  a  king 
of  Great  Britain  could  bestow,  few  can  doubt  who 
duly  consider  the  life,  conduct,  and  extraordinary 
character  of  that  great  man.  Yet  his  acceptance  of 
a  peerage  with  a  corresponding  pension  was  cried 
out  against  as  a  flagrant  desertion  of  the  people's 
cause,  and  abandonment  of  his  former  principles^ 
Those  who  were  called  Lord  Bute's  hireling  writers 
took  advantage  of  it,  and  heaped  abuse  upon  the  new- 
made  peer  with  a  view  to  destroy  his  popularity.  A 
number  of  these  w^ere  employed,  at  a  very  great  ex- 
pense, to  beat  down  the  towering  spirit  of  the  great 
orator  and  patriot.  But  the  abuse  was  not  confined 
wholly  to  them.     Some  envious  peers  as  well  as 

*  History  of  tlie  Minority,  cliap.  xxi.     4th  edition.     London,  1766. 
7 


50  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

commoners  were  far  from  discountenancing  the  ef- 
fort for  reducing  Lord  Chatham  to  a  level  with 
themselves.  A  strong  impediment  to  these  designs 
w^as  the  existence  of  a  small  but  nobly  patriotic 
band  in  Parliament,  men  of  great  w^eight  of  char- 
acter, such  as  Temple,  Rockingham,  Camden,  and 
Burke.  Yet  the  young,  inexperienced,  and  ill-advised 
monarch  took  the  resolution  to  remove  this  obstacle, 
and,  with  that  view,  actually  ventured  to  dissolve  the 
great  council  of  the  nation  in  the  year  1761. 

From  that  inauspicious  day,  George  the  Third 
might  date  the  commencement  of  his  unhappiness, 
and  Great  Britain  her  manifold  disasters  ;  some  of 
which  she  yet  feels  and  deplores,  while  we  Ameri- 
cans, since  separated  from  her,  have  no  reason  to 
bewail  the  event,  seeing  it  led  to  our  independence. 

A  new  Parhament  was  about  convening.  A  few 
weeks  before  it  met,  foreign  agents,  and  certain 
British  sub-agents,  were  busily  employed  in  preparing 
for  the  purchase  of  peace  from  England.  The 
ground  had  been  prepared  before  the  seed  arrived ; 
and  the  rich  Duke  of  Bedford  was  about  embarking 
for  France,  as  Lord  Bute's  representative,  while  the 
bulk  of  the  nation  were  very  far  from  being  tired  of 
the  war,  as  success  followed  the  British  colors  in 
every  quarter  of  the  world. 

The  first  manifestation  of  the  tainted  condition  of 
things  was  discernible  at  Head-Quarters,  in  doubling 
the  number  of  attendants  and  servants  at  the  pal- 
ace, and  in  multiplying  donatives  beyond  all  former 
example.*     Twenty-five  thousand  pounds  were  is- 

*  A  member  of  Parliament  was,  at  that  time,  a  turnspit  in  the  king's 
kitchen.     We  assert  it  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Burke. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  5 1 

sued  in  one  day  in  bank  notes  of  one  hundred 
pounds  each,  when  the  only  stipulation  was — "  Give 
us  your  vote.''  Loyal  addresses  from  various  quar- 
ters were  presented  to  the  King,  thanking  him  for  his 
gracious  efforts  to  make  peace  with  France  and 
Spain.  One  from  the  venerable  University  of  Oxford 
tells  his  Majesty  that  "  he  was  ordained,  by  the  pe- 
cuhar  favor  of  Providence,  to  repair  the  ruins  and 
ravages  of  a  destructive  war."  As  if  England  was 
madty  rushing  to  ruin,  by  her  uninterrupted  victories 
over  the  forces  of  the  united  powers  of  the  House 
of  Bourbon.  Hence  the  necessity  of  an  immediate 
peace  with  a  prostrate  enemy  ! 

We  are  informed  from  respectable  authority,  that 
"  the  addresses  to  the  King,  which  followed  the 
parliamentary  approbation  of  the  preliminary  articles 
of  peace,  were  obtained  by  means  equally  dishonor- 
able and  corrupt.  There  was  one  instance  where 
the  seal  of  a  corporation  was  forged,  and  more  than 
one  where  it  was  feloniously  obtained."  *  Lord  But^ 
tampered  with  the  city,  which  refused  to  address 
although  the  sum  of  fourteen  thousand  pounds  was 
offered  to  complete  Black  Friars'  bridge.  This  offer 
they  disdained,  and  after  finishing  it  themselves,  they 
dedicated  that  noble  structure  to  the  Earl  of  Chat- 
ham, by  an  highly  complimentary  inscription.  The 
authority  just  cited  informs  us  that  "  no  means  were 
left  untried  every  where  to  obtain  addresses.  The 
Lord-Lieutenants  had  begging  letters  sent  them  to 
use  their  influence,  and  five  hundred  pounds  secret 
service-money  were   added   to   each  letter.      The 

*  Anecdotes  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham 


52  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

sum  of  five  hundred  pounds  was  the  notorious  price 
of  an  address.  Some  addresses  cost  a  much  larger 
sum,  according  to  the  importance  and  magnitude  of 
the  place  from  which  the  address  was  obtained."  It 
was  remarked  that  during  the  time  Lord  Bute  held 
his  pubhc  situation  as  prime  minister,  no  favorite  ex- 
ercised the  power  of  the  crown  with  more  insolence. 
Can  imagination  conceive  any  thing  more  irritating, 
more  enraging  to  such  a  lofty  spirit  as  that  of  Chat- 
ham, than  seeing  the  work  of  his  glorious  life,  the  re- 
sult of  his  matchless  labors,  pulled  down  before  his 
eyes,  by  an  infamous  and  inadequate  peace  ;  the 
solid  pyramid  of  his  fame  dilapidated,  not  by  the 
chance  or  fortune  of  war,  but  deliberately,  and  its 
materials  sold  to  Frenchmen,  Spaniards,  and  people 
nearer  home  ? 

However,  we  search  in  vain  for  the  clear,  uncon- 
taminated  history  of  those  dark  transactions,  in  the 
unbroken  series  of  cause  and  effect.  The  English, 
'with  all  their  boasted  freedom  of  the  press,  dare  not 
publish  the  whole  truth  respecting  their  Kings, 
Queens,  and  Princesses.*  The  best  histories  of  Rome 
were  not  written  by  natives  of  "  the  Eternal  City." 
As  it  regards  England,  we  pick  the  truth  up  here 
and    there    from    anecdotes,    memoirs,    daily    and 

*  Whoever  wishes  to  be  more  particularly  informed,  let  him  read 
the  examination  of  Dr.  Musgrave  at  the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons 
in  1762,  and  let  him  notice  the  words  of  Sir  William  Blackstone  in  the 
course  of  that  examination,  as  recorded  in  the  twenty-second  chapter, 
volume  first,  of  the  Anecdotes  and  Speeches  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham, 
the  seventh  edition,  coirected,  London,  1810 ;  which,  though  anonymous, 
was  evidently  published  from  the  first  under  the  sanction  of  the  Pitt 
and  Grenville  family,  and  made,  in  a  manner,  the  basis  of  Thackeray's 
Life  of  Lord  Chatham. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  53 

weekly  publications,  such  being,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  great  Lord  Somers,  the  most  faithful  pictures 
of  "  the  bent  and  genius  of  the  age,  the  sense  of 
parties,  and  sometimes  the  voice  of  the  nation." 
Boast  not.  Englishmen,  of  your  liberty  of  the  press, 
while  you  have  such  partial  histories  as  those  of 
Lord  Clarendon,  David  Hume,  and  the  Annual  Reg- 
ister, though  conducted  by  Edmund  Burke,  that 
very  able  and  intrepid  son  of  liberty.*  If  you  com- 
pare the  few  first-rate  British  histories  and  annals 
with  the  memoirs  of  some  of  their  eminent  men  who 
had  directed  them  to  be  buried  till  thirty  years  after 
their  decease, — time  enough  for  their  children  and 
probably  grandchildren  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  re- 
sentment, you  will  learn  the  truth  of  our  assertion. 
We  predict,  however,  that  some  bold  and  persevering 

*  A  very  valuable  and  impartial  history  of  the  Jlmerican  Revolution 
was  written  by  the  Rev.  William  Gordon,  D.  D.,  an  Englishman  ;  who 
resided  about  twelve  years  in  Massachusetts,  and  had  access  to  the 
best  authorities,  including  that  of  Washington,  Greene,  Knox,  and 
Gates,  and  the  journals  of  Congress  and  of  the  Legislatures  of  the  sev- 
eral States.  He  injudiciously  returned  to  England,  there  to  print  his 
interesting  history.  He  deemed  it  prudent  to  submit  his  manuscript  to 
a  gentleman  learned  in  the  law,  to  mark  such  chapters  and  passages  as 
might  endanger  prosecution,  when  the  lawyer  returned  it  with  such  a 
large  portion  expurgated  as  to  reduce  about  four  volumes  to  three. 
The  author  being  too  aged  and  too  infirm  to  venture  upon  a  voyage 
back  to  America,  and  too  poor  withal,  he  submitted  to  its  publica- 
tion in  a  mutilated  state  ;  and  thus  the  most  just  and  impartial  history 
of  the  American  war,  and  of  the  steps  that  led  to  it,  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic,  was  sadly  marred,  and  sliamefully  mutilated.  My  author- 
ity is  from  my  late  venerable  Iriend  JoJui  Adams,  tlie  President  of 
these  United  States,  who  perused  Gordon's  manuscript  when  he  was 
our  Minister  at  the  Court  of  London,  and  from  my  own  knowledge, 
having  been  shown  a  considerable  portion  of  the  History  before  the  au- 
thor left  tliis  country  to  die  in  his  own,  and  having  corresponded  with 
him  till  near  tlio  close  of  his  long  life. 


54  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

searcher  on  that  or  this  side  the  Atlantic  will  find 
pearls,  and  diamonds,  and  precious  stones  in  the  dirt, 
and  string  them  together  and  therewith  make  a  chaplet 
for  the  brow  of  Truth.  The  author  of  the  work 
we  have  so  often  commended  says, — "  There  is  such 
a  delicacy  prevails  in  England,  greater  than  in  some 
arbitrary  monarchies,  concerning  the  conduct  of  the 
Royal  Family,  that  truth  of  them  is  usually  suppress- 
ed until  it  is  forgotten.  The  justice  of  history  is 
thereby  perverted  ;  and  the  constitution,  in  this  im- 
portant point,  is  Uterally  and  efficiently  destroyed."  * 
Even  the  very  bold  and  prophet-like  Junius  when  he 
addresses  his  Sovereign  in  the  firm  but  honest  lan- 
guage of  reprehension,  does  it  in  the  studied  style  of 
respect.  You  see  throughout  his  famous  letter,  the 
enthroned  King,  and  the  conscientious,  presaging 
Magus  of  a  subject,  but  void  of  that  indelicate,  sa- 
cerdotal objurgation  used  by  certain  French  preachers 
to  their  monarchs. 

When  Lord  Chatham  resigned,  the  Earl  of  Egre- 
mont  took  his  place  ;  a  nobleman  w^ell  suited  to  the 
views  of  the  Earl  of  Bute.  On  the  sudden  death  of 
Egremont,  Lord  Bute  came  in  Prime  Minister  almost 
of  course.  When  these  changes  took  place,  I  well 
remember  the  unfavorable  impression  it  made  re- 
specting the  real  character  of  the  young  monarch 
in  these  New  England  colonies.  It  excited  doubts 
of  his  wisdom,  and  created  suspicions  of  his  ultimate 
views,  as  Pitt  was  a  personage  almost  worshipped  in 
America. 

When  Pitt  retired  from  office  he  was  comparative- 
ly poor.     But  when  Bute  was  finally  constrained  to 

■*  Anecdotes  of  Lord  Chatham. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  55 

retire,  he  v*^as  very  rich.  The  question  at  that 
time  among  the  people  was, — Where  did  his  riches 
come  from?  Peace, />e  still!  Honor  and.increas-. 
ing  fame  followed  Chatham  ;  suspicions  and  bitter 
execrations  accompanied  Bute, — whether  right  or 
wrong,  whether  just  or  unjust,  we  pretend  not  to 
decide.  The  dark  cave  of  favoritism  affords  us,  dis- 
tant and  inexperienced  republicans,  but  little  light. 
It  really  does  not  appear  that  Lord  Bute  was  a  very 
bad  man,  with  a  heart  corrupted  by  the  love  of 
money,  and  intoxicated  by  the  splendors  of  high  sta- 
tion, or  that  he  had  a  great  desire  to  enrich  his 
children,  whom  he  always  kept  at  a  great  and  chil- 
lins:  distance. 

Lord  Bute  appears  to  have  been  a  man  better 
fitted  by  nature,  education,  and  habit  for  President 
of  the  Royal  Society  than  Prime  Minister  of  Great 
Britain.  He  had  an  extraordinary  appearance  of 
wisdom  in  his  looks  and  manner  of  speaking ; 
whether  the  subject  were  serious  or  trifling,  he  was 
equally  pompous,  slow,  and  sententious.  His  deliv- 
ery in  Parliament  was  so  very  slow,  solemn,  and  mo- 
notonous, that  when  the  brilliant  Charles  Townsend 
heard  him  the  first  time  in  the  House  of  Lords,  he 
exclaimed — Minute  Guns  !  From  all  which  it  may 
be  inferred  that  the  Earl  of  Bute  was  one  of  those 
characters  spoken  of  by  Lord  Bacon,  who  are  con- 
stantly upon  the  stretch  to  make  superficies  appear 
sohds.* 

*  It  has  been  said  of  Lord  Bute,  that  "  He  was  reserved,  inward, 
and  darksome.  Clandestine  without  conceahnent,  sad  without  sor- 
row, domestic  without  familiarity,  haughty  without  elevation  ;   nothing 


56  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

Directly  on  Lord  Bute's  being  made  commissioner 
of  the  treasury,  in  1762,  came  out  the  first  number  of 
the  Briton,  written  by  Dr.  Smollet,  praising  his  Lord- 
ship to  the  skies,  with  occasional  sarcasms  and  sly 

great,  nothing  noble  having  ever  marked  his  character,  or  illustrated 
his  conduct  in  public  or  private  life.  Reducing  every  thing  to  his  own 
ideas,  that  standard  of  littleness,  that  mint  of  falsity.  A  frigid  friend, 
a  mean  enemy.  Stubborn  without  firmness,  and  ambitious  without 
spirit.  Ungenerous  without  any  very  extraordinary  note  of  avarice  ; 
but  rather  so  through  the  poverty  of  head  and  heart.  Bookish  without 
learning  ;  as  insensible  and  unconversable  on  the  great  subjects  of  lite- 
rature, as  one  deaf  and  dumb  when  questioned  on  a  concert  of  music. 
A  dabbler  in  the  fine  arts  without  grace  or  taste.  A  traveller  through 
countries  without  seeing  them,  and  totally  unacquainted  with  his  own. 
In  a  dull  ungenial  solitude,  muddling  away  what  leisure  he  may  have 
from  false  politics  and  ruinous  counsels,  in  stuffing  his  port-folios  with 
penny  prints  and  pretty  pictures  of  colored  simples,  those  gazing- 
traps  of  simpletons,  and  garnishing  his  knicknackatory  with  mechanical 
toys,  baubles,  and  gimcracks,  or  varying  his  nonsense  with  little 
tricks  of  chemistry ;  while  all  these  futile  puerilities  have  been  rendered 
still  more  futile  by  the  gloom  of  a  solemn  visage,  ridiculously  exhibiting 
the  preternatural  character  of  a  grave  child.  Bagatelles  these,  which 
it  would  doubtless  be  impertinent,  illiberal,  and  even  uncharitable  to 
mention,  were  it  not  for  the  apprehension  of  his  having  inspired  this 
most  unroyal  taste  for  trifles  where  it  could  not  exist,  but  at  the  ex- 
pense of  a  time  and  attention,  of  which  the  nation  could  not  be  robbed 
without  capital  detriment  to  it;  a  circumstance  this,  that  must  draw 
down  a  ridicule  upon  his  master,  not  to  be  easily  shaken  off",  and  as 
much  more  hurtful  to  a  prince  than  a  calumny  of  a  graver  nature,  as 
contempt  is  ever  more  fatal  to  government  than  even  fear  or  hatred. 
[The  readers  of  the  malapert  Peter  Pindar  can  best  judge  of  this.] 
Too  unhappily,  alas !  for  this  nation,  chance  had  thrown  this  egregious 
trifler  into  a  family  [that  of  Frederic,  Prince  of  Wales,]  whom  his  do- 
mestic streights  had  favorably  disposed  towards  him.  How  he  main- 
tained and  improved  his  footing  into  a  pernicious  ascendant,  is  surely 
beneath  curiosity. 

"  As  to  the  royal  pupil,  who  by  a  much  misplaced  confidence,  fell 
under  his  management  at  the  tender  age  of  susceptibility  of  all  im- 
pressions, it  was  not  well  possible  for  him  to  prevent  a  deep-rooted 
partiality  for  a  choice  manifestly  not  made  by  him,  but  for  him.     In  raw, 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 


57 


reflections  on  the  late  King,  and  copious  abuse  of 
Mr.  Pitt.  This  was  soon  followed  by  the  celebrated 
JYorth  Briton,  written  by  several  hands.  This  sar- 
castic production  attacked  not  only  Lord  Bute,  but 
the  King's  mother,  with  low  abuse  of  the   Scotch  as 

inexperienced,  unguarded  youth,  practised  upon  by  an  insidious  study 
of  his  inclinations,  not  to  rectify,  but  to  govern  him  by  them  ;  captivated 
by  an  unremitting  attention  to  liumor  and  perpetuate  the  natural  bent 
of  that  age  to  the  lighter  objects  of  amusement ;  instituted  to  an  im- 
plicit faith  in  the  man  who  littered  his  head  with  trifles,  and,  unable  to 
corrupt  his  heart,  only  hardened  it  like  his  own  against  the  remonstran- 
ces of  true  greatness,  while  warping  his  understanding  with  the  falsest 
notions  of  men  and  things,  and  especially  of  maxims  of  state,  of  which 
himself  never  had  so  much  as  an  elementary  idea  ;  thus  delivered  up  to 
such  a  tutor,  how  could  the  disciple  possibly  escape  such  a  combination  ? 
What  of  essentially  wise  or  magnanimous  could  he  learn  from  such  a 
pedlar  in  politics  and  manners  ?  No  one  can  impart  what  himself 
never  had.  Honor,  gratitude,  dignity  of  sentiment,  energy  of  sincerity, 
comprehensiveness  of  views,  were  not  in  him  to  inculcate.  Obstinacy 
under  the  stale  disguise  of  firmness,  the  royalty  of  repairing  wrong  by 
persisting  in  it,  the  plausible  decencies  of  private  life,  the  petty  morali- 
ties, the  minutenesses  of  public  arrangements;  the  preference  of  dark 
juggle,  mystery,  and  low  artifice,  to  the  frank,  open  spirit  of  govern- 
ment ;  the  abundant  sufficiency  of  the  absence  of  great  vices,  to  atone 
for  the  want  of  great  virtues ;  a  contempt  of  reputation,  and  especially 
that  execrable  absurdity  in  the  Sovereign  of  a  free  people,  the  neglect  of 
popularity,  were  all  that  the  hapless  pupil  could  possibly  learn  from 
such  a  preceptor." — "  All  prejudice  then  apart,  mark  in  him,  to  his 
Prince  a  tutor  without  knowledge,  a  minister  without  ability,  a  favorite 
without  gratitude ;  the  very  anti-genius  of  politics ;  the  curse  of 
Scotland  ;  the  disgrace  of  his  master  ;  the  despair  of  the  nation  ;  and 
the  disdain  of  history."  * 

This  portrait,  painted  with  Dutch  exactness,  feature  by  feature, 
without  the  least  caricature,  explains  what  long  puzzled  me,  namely, 
the  silence  of  Junius,  and  of  Lord  Chatham  in  regard  to  Bute. 
They  doubtless  considered  him  beneath  the  dignity  of  history  or  ora- 
tory. Thus  animals  escape  the  hunter  because  they  arc  not  worth  the 
powder  and  shot. 

When  Lord  Bute  became  Prime  Minister,  the  Scotch,  generally, 
were  elated  beyond  expression.     The  Jacobites  all  flocked  to  court, 

*  Seo  a  note  in  vol.  I.  chap.  xxiv.  of  Anocdotos  and  Speoches  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham. 

8 


58  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

a  people.  Its  fire  was  so  intense  and  well  directed 
to  its  object,  that  it  soon  demolished  the  slight  works 
of  the  Briton,  whose  fierce  antagonist  held  on  its 
way  rejoicing  until  it  attained  its  45th  number,  when 
it  was  checked  by  a  prosecution.  The  author  of 
this  far-famed  number  w^as  found  to  be  Colonel  John 
Wilkes,  an  English  gentleman,  of  a  character  not 
easily  described  nor  readily  understood  by  the  citi- 
zens of  our  young  Republic,  as  we  are  yet  republicans 
of  the  ancient  Roman  stamp,  while  the  luxurious 
Englishmen  in  the  blaze  of  fashion,  are  Corinthians. 
The  personages  more  particularly  aggrieved  by  the 
satirical  North  Briton  were  blinded  by  a  rage  which 
was  rather  of  a  feminine  than  of  a  mascuhne  char- 
acter, and  which  precipitated  them  into  several  very 
serious  errors  and  many  consequent  mortifications. 
The  first  steps  in  the  prosecution  of  Wilkes  w^ere 
illegal,  the  subsequent  ones  imprudent,  and  the  whole 
procedure,  from  beginning  to  end,  undignified.  This 
irregular  procedure,  being  exposed  and  exaggerated 
by  the  opposition  in  their  new  Parhament,  threw  the 
whole  country  into  a  flame,  and  afforded  to  the 
whole  world  (with  the  exception  of  these  thirteen 
colonies)  an  astonishing  instance  of  the  power  of  the 
people,  when  the  executive  part  of  the  government 
oversteps  the  sacred  boundaries  of  the  constitution. 
Through  the  medium  of  the  press  and  the  speeches 
in  Parliament,  the  people  w^ere  made  to  understand 
the  question,  and  they  took  John  Wilkes  under  their 

overjoyed  to  see  a  Stuart  so  near  the  throne.  Previously  to  forming  a 
Tory  administration,  the  Favorite  dismissed  that  excellent  minister  Mr. 
Legge,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  the  greatly  esteemed  friend 
of  Lord  Chatham.    Junius  speaks  of  his  dismissal  in  terms  of  disgust. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  59 

protection  ;  in  which,  if  not  applauded,  they  were  not 
discouraged  by  characters  of  the  highest  rank  of  sub- 
jects. This,  taken  altogether,  at  length  constituted 
that  sort  of  adoption  which  astonished  all  Europe, 
and  occasioned  even  the  democrats  of  New  Eng- 
land to  stare  at  each  other  with  amazement ;  for 
Wilkes  had  but  little  weight  of  moral  character, 
was  not  gifted  with  mental  talents  of  the  first  class, 
and  was  void  of  the  chief  powers  of  oratory.  But 
then  his  abihties  were  respectable,  his  courage  un- 
daunted, his  perseverance  surprising,  and  his  gen- 
tlemanlike good-humor  exhaustless. 

While  the  people  and  their  leaders  w^ere  magnify- 
ing this  favored  child  of  fortune,  the  populace  were 
taught  to  believe  that  the  learned  Lord  Mansfield, 
who  sat  at  the  head  of  the  judiciary,  was  an  officer 
dangerous  from  his  arbitrary  principles  and  alleged 
entire  subserviency  to  the  crown ;  and  that  his  ele- 
vated countryman.  Lord  Bute,  was  in  conspiration 
fast  destroying  the  liberties  of  England.  We  pre- 
tend not — we  presume  not  to  weigh  such  a  vir 
ponderosus  as  William  Murray,  Lord  Mansfield.  I 
saw  the  ruins  of  his  habitation,  with  sorrow  and  in- 
dignation on  a  second  exacerbation  of  popular  de- 
lirium, in  1780. 

In  the  year  1768  the  capital  of  the  British  Empire 
exhibited  a  singular  spectacle.  Our  countryman, 
Dr.  Franklin,  says  of  it,  in  a  letter  dated  London, 
April  1768,  to  his  son  in  America,  "  It  is  really  ex- 
traordinary to  see  an  outlaw,  an  exile,*  of  bad  per- 
sonal character,  not  worth  a  farthing,  coming  over 


*  When  prosecuted  for  his  libellous  No.  45,  Wilkes  fled  to  France^. 


60  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

from  France,  set  himself  up  as  a  candidate  for  the 
capital  of  the  kingdom,  miss  election  only  by  being 
too  late  in  his  appUcation  ;  and  immediately  carry  it 
for  the  principal  county,  [Middlesex,  which  includes 
London.]  The  mob,  spirited  up  by  numbers  of 
different  ballads  sung  or  roared  in  every  street,  and 
requiring  gentlemen  and  ladies  of  all  ranks,  as  they 
passed  in  their  carriages,  to  shout  Wilkes  and  Liber- 
ty !  marking  the  same  words  on  all  their  coaches 
with  chalk,  and  the  number  45;  and  on  every  door 
in  London,  and  for  more  than  fifty  miles  in  the 
country  !  " 

In  the  following  month.  May  1768,  the  Doctor 
again  writes, — "  Even  this  capital,  the  residence  of  the 
King,  is  now  a  daily  scene  of  lawless  riot  and  con- 
fusion ;  mobs  patrolhng  the  streets  at  noonday ; 
some  knocking  all  down  that  will  not  roar  out  Wilkes 
and  Liberty ;  courts  of  justice  afraid  to  give  judg- 
ment against  him ;  coal-heavers  and  porters  pulling 
down  the  houses  of  coal-merchants,  that  refuse  to 
give  them  more  wages  ;  sailors  unrigging  all  outward 
bound  ships,  and  suffering  none  to  sail  till  merchants 
agreed  to  raise  their  pay ;  watermen  destroying 
private  boats,  and  threatening  bridges,  [and  this 
under  the  guns  of  the  tower  ;]  soldiers  firing  among 
the  mobs  and  killing  men,  women,  and  children." — 
"  The  scenes  have  been  horrible.  London  was 
illuminated  two  nights  running  at  the  command  of 
the  mob,  for  the  success  of  Wilkes  in  the  Middlesex 
election.  The  second  night  exceeded  any  thing  of 
the  kind  ever  seen  here.  Those  who  refused  to 
illuminate  had  their  windows  destroyed." 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 


61 


These  outrages  in  London  described  by  Dr.  Frank- 
lin,* exceeded,  far  exceeded  any  riot  that  ever 
occurred  in  these  North  American  Colonies.  The 
destruction  of  the  King's  vessel,  the  Gaspee,  at 
Rhode  Island  in  1772;  the  wasting  the  cargoes  of 
Tea  in  Boston  harbour,  to  prevent  its  landing,  and 
of  course  obviating  an  inextricable  difficulty,  were 
conducted  with  regularity,  order,  stillness,  and  marks 
of  deliberation,  more  like  the  service  of  a  detachment 
of  marines  than  the  acts  of  a  mob.  Compare  the  ter- 
rific conflagrations,  in  what  were  called  Lord  George 
Gordon's  mobs,  when  they  destroyed  Lord  Mans- 
field's house,  library,  and  manuscripts,  with  the 
destruction  of  the  furniture  of  Governor  Hutchinson 
in  Boston,  and  a  few  others  in  America,  and  we 
need  not  blush  for  our  popular  character  when  con- 
trasted with  that  of  the  London  populace  in   1780.f 

In  those  tumultuary  times  in  England,  the  throne 
itself  was  not  assailed  as  in  the  case  of  Charles  the 
First,  and  since  in  France.     The  discontent  arose 

*  See  his  Memoirs. 

f  During  the  revolutionary  period,  not  a  single  individual  lost  life 
or  limb  by  a  mob,  nor  did  any  one  suffer  death  in  any  of  the  New 
England  Colonies  or  States  for  his  political  sentiments.  The  ludicrous 
mob-punishment  of  tar  and  feathers,  so  greatly  misrepresented,  was 
perpetrated  on  certain  informers  against  the  smugglers,  and  on  them 
alone ;  and  these  by  sailors  and  their  associates,  all  of  that  class  of 
people.  In  the  midst  of  high  popular  excitement,  while  Boston  was  a 
British  garrison,  a  British  captain  and  a  guard  of  his  soldiers,  on  duty 
at  the  Custom  House,  were  attacked  by  a  gang  of  young  persons,  first 
with  snow-balls  and  then  with  bits  of  ice,  when  the  soldiers  fired,  and 
killed  and  wounded  several  who  were  not  in  the  affray.  Instead  of 
being  instantly  massacred,  they  were  tried  by  a  Boston  jury,  by  men 
who  considered  the  British  soldiers  as  so  many  locusts  sent  to  destroy 
them,  and  acquitted,  as  acting  in  self-defence  and  upon  duty.  This 
precious  anecdote  speaks  volumes  in  the  ear  of  candor. 


62  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

from  a  disregard  to  the  English  constitution.  When 
the  Princess  Dowager  of  Wales  came  to  England, 
she  found  the  British  Sovereign  a  very  diflferent 
character,  and  the  court  of  St.  James  a  very  different 
coterie  from  that  in  which  she  had  been  educated  at 
Saxe-Gotha.  She  saw  that  George  the  Second  was 
controlled  by  his  ministers,  and  compelled  to  submit 
to  their  opinions  on  all  important  subjects.  The 
comparison  disgusted  her,  and  she  resolved  to  make 
the  court  of  her  husband,  or  of  her  son,  should  he 
attain  the  crown,  as  near  like  that  of  her  father  as 
possible.  She  strove  to  make  the  court  of  London 
like  the  miniature  court  of  Saxe-Gotha. 

Fool  that  I  was  to  think  unperial  Rome 
Like  Mantua !  * 

There  was  no  wish  to  change  the  form  of  the 
government,  nor  to  encroach  on  the  legal  preroga- 
tives of  the  crown  as  established  at  the  revolution  ; 
but  there  was  an  extreme  jealousy  and  discontent 
arising  from  occurrences  in  the  administration  of  it. 
The  pubhc  had  been  greatly  disappointed.  They 
expected  more  from  their  young,  inexperienced  King, 
than  such  a  man  with  such  an  education  could  possi- 
bly perform.  Had  he  been  a  King  John,  or  a  Harry 
the  Eighth,  the  spirit  of  the  times  would  have  reme- 
died the  evil  at  once.  But  the  Third  George  was  a 
moral  man.  After  the  strictest  sect  of  his  religion, 
he  lived  a  Pharisee  ;  and  therefore  respectable  in 
the  eyes  of  his  two  Universities  and  of  the  holy 
catholic  church,  with  a  constitutional  abhorrence  of 

*  Urbem  quam  dicunt  Romam,  Melibose,  putavi 
Stultus  ego  huic  nostrse  similem.     Virg. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  63 

popery  bordering  on  bigotry.  In  every  thing,  even 
in  religion,  lie  was  a  staunch  churchman,  stubborn 
as  a  rock  ;  yet,  though  slow  and  cold  in  toleration,  he 
never  countenanced  persecution. 

At  the  distance  of  three  thousand  miles  of  clear 
ocean,  objects  in  Britain  seem  to  us,  through  our 
camera  obsciira,  different  from  what  they  appear  to 
those  islanders  themselves.  At  the  time  spoken  of, 
we  were  a  part  of  the  same  realm  ;  a  very  loyal 
people,  magnifying  the  good,  and  feehng  none  of  the 
evil  complained  of  in  England.  We  felt  no  great 
solicitude  or  interest  in  the  admission,  or  expulsion 
of  John  Wilkes  from  their  parliament.  Yet  we  saw 
with  surprise  the  change  of  sentiment  respecting 
the  King  and  his  court.  If  any  one  will  take  the 
pains  to  read  the  elaborate  accounts  of  the  corona- 
tion and  the  nuptial  ceremonies  of  King  George  the 
Third  with  a  German  Princess,  in  the  year  1761, 
and  notice  the  almost  adoration  expressed  of  those 
exalted  personages  ;  and  mark  with  what  pride  and 
rapture  the  minute  details  of  those  gorgeous  cere- 
monies were  received,  rehshed,  and  prolonged  by 
the  people  of  London  ;  and  contrast  them  with  the 
state  of  affairs,  and  with  the  feelings  of  the  same 
people  a  few  years  afterwards,  he  will  perceive  an 
altered  state  of  things,  and  a  great  change  in  the 
public  sentiment,  without  waiting  for  us  to  express  it 
in  words.  We  would  only  remark,  that  if  we  com- 
pare the  general  sentiment  of  the  British  nation 
during  the  three  last  years  of  George  the  Second, 
when  Pitt  was  at  the  helm  of  state,  with  that  of  his 
grandson,  under  the  management  of  Lord  Bute,  we 


54  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

shall  hardly  feel  surprise  that,  even  in  these  far  distant 
colonies,  the  character  of  the  young  monarch  was 
shaken  and  manifestly  impaired  by  the  circumstan- 
ces of  the  peace.  We  grieved  to  see  some  of 
the  most  valuable  islands  in  the  West  Indies  that 
were  conquered  from  France  and  Spain,  restored  to 
them.  We  rejoiced  with  wonder  on  finding  that 
Canada  was  retained,  while  the  island  of  Cuba^  that 
Great  Britain  of  the  Western  world,  was  given  up 
to  the  conquered.  But  the  Earl  of  Chatham  was 
not  consulted  on  the  articles  of  peace  ;  and  they 
who  made  it,  considered  only  their  present  advantage. 
If  very  many  people  in  England  have  confounded 
John  Wilkes,  with  his  cause,  it  is  no  great  wonder 
that  we  in  America  have  not  always  separated  them. 
It  comports  with  our  design  to  speak  in  a  cursory 
manner  of  both  in  this  place  ;  and  more  particularly 
hereafter.  He  was  a  man  who  had  not  quite  moral 
character  enough  to  excite  great  esteem  and  respect, 
yet  sufficient  talent  and  education,  honor  and  manners, 
to  make  him  an  object  of  fear  and  great  force  in  the 
hands  of  the  powerful  whig-party  which  upheld  him. 
His  was  that  mixed  and  middle  character  which  civil 
revolutions  call  for.  In  that  tumultuary  condition  of 
affairs,  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  George  the 
Third,  John  Wilkes  was  made  the  principal  figure. 
There  is  yet  another  reason  for  introducing  him  to 
our  readers,  I  mean  the  intercourse  between  him 
and  the  great  Unknown,  the  terrific  Junius,  who 
wrote  to  him  several  private  letters,  which  I  myself 
consider  equal  to  any  thing  that  has  fallen  from  the 
pen  of  Junius; — not  in  polish  or  in  the  flowers  of 


• 


I* 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  65 

rhetoric,  but  in  depth  of  thought,  knowledge  of  the 
human  heart,  and  wonderful  tact  in  the  management 
of  a  froward  character,  which  we  beheve  did  not 
appertain  to  any  two  men  of  that  day.  We  shall 
speak  of  this  political  meteor  hereafter,  and  occa- 
sionally ;  and  shall  only  remark  now,  that  the  saga- 
cious Junius  enlisted  him  into  his  service.  He 
considered  him  the  very  man  whom  the  able  and  in- 
trepid band  of  whigs  needed  to  co-operate  with  them 
in  exorcizing  the  evil  spirit  behind  the  throne.  To 
cover  the  here  and  there  dark  spots  in  the  private, 
rakish  character  of  the  spirited  Wilkes,  they  con- 
spired with  the  times  to  inflate  him  to  a  size  and 
shape  that  was  frightful  to  the  court,  astonishing  to 
the  world,  and  must  have  been,  now  and  then,  laugh- 
able to  himself.  The  Enghsh  people,  who,  in  point 
of  national  character,  stand  between  the  French  and 
the  Dutch,  were  taught  to  believe,  that  John  Wilkes 
was  the  devoted  and  sworn  champion  of  their  dear- 
est rights  and  privileges  ;  that  he  and  they  would 
sink  or  swim  together;  and  that  he  was  prose- 
cuted and  then  persecuted  by  the  crown,  in  a  great 
measure,  on  their  account.  They  were  wrought  up 
to  a  firm  belief  that  their  danger  originated  from  the 
remaining  foreign  leaven  of  the  Leicester-House 
secret  and  irresponsible  cabinet,  then  fermenting  in 
the  new  court  of  their  inexperienced  and  deluded 
King.  Under  these  impressions  and  apprehensions, 
their  resentment  became  terrible,  and  produced  the 
riots  we  have  already  mentioned.  The  storm  which 
"  the  daemon  of  discord  "  had  raised  to  drown  this 
idol  of  the  people  failed  to  overwhelm  him.  He 
9 


66  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

floated  conspicuously  on  the  top  of  every  wave,  while 
the  monarch,  his  family,  and  "  his  friends  "  felt  the 
appalling  force  of  the  refluent  one.  Nor  was  this 
the  sole  cause  of  the  commotion.  The  thundering 
voice  from  the  press  commenced  its  re-action  ;  and 
had  that  champion  of  the  malcontents  possessed  a  pri- 
vate and  social  character  as  pure  as  that  of  Mr.  Pitt, 
or  Sir  George  Saville,  he  and  his  cause  combined 
might  have  gone  far  towards  driving  the  native  King, 
in  disgust,  to  his  electoral  dominions.  But  Wilkes 
was  of  a  strangely  mixed  character.  If  he  somewhat 
resembled  Richardson's  Lovelace,  his  conduct,  now 
and  then,  brings  to  our  recollection  the  Roman 
Regulus.  He  could  feel,  think,  and  act  hke  a  Spar- 
tan general  and,  on  the  same  day,  like  a  rake.  He 
dehghted  to  walk  the  streets  of  London  in  full  dress, 
and  loved  dearly  greetings  in  the  market-place. 
Thus  he  united  greatness  of  mind  with  a  pitiful 
vanity.*  With  the  most  insinuating  address  and  as- 
senting manners  and  speech,  he  united  inflexible 
bravery.  Being  a  man  of  pleasure  without  fortune 
to  support  it,  he  panted  to  rise  above  his  station,  and 
resolved  to  make,  some  way  or  other,  a  conspicuous 
figure  ;  and  he  succeeded,  to  admiration. 

Mr.  Wilkes  had  very  favorable  opportunities  for 
an  excellent  education,  first  in  London,  and  after- 
wards at  Leyden,  then  in  greater  reputation  among 

*  I  had  some  personal  knowledge  of  this  champion  of  the  people's 
rights,  having  had  letters  of  introduction  to  him  in  the  year  1775,  when 
he  was  Lord  Mayor  of  London.  I  went  directly  from  Dr.  Fothergill's 
in  Harpur  Street  to  wait  on  his  Lordship  at  the  City  Mansion-House. 
What  a  conii&si,— the  simplex  munditiis  of  the  one,  and  the  peacockism 
of  the  other ! 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  67 

the  Whigs  than  either  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  and 
distinguished  also  about  this  time,  as  the  scene  of 
education  of  the  Honorable  Charles  Townsend,  the 
Duke  of  Richmond,  Akenside,  Dyson,  and  one  of  the 
sons  of  Lord  Bute,  and  several  Russian  and  German 
Princes.  If  in  after  life,  as  a  man,  he  trod  in  the  im- 
pure and  dangerous  paths  of  pleasure  with  associates 
beneath  him,  he  entertained  and  heartily  relished 
sound  constitutional  principles  as  an  Englishman, 
which  he  maintained  in  a  stern  spirit  of  patriotism 
equal,  at  times,  to  that  of  John  Hampden.  He  ap- 
peared an  able  writer,  except  when  the  productions 
of  his  pen  happened  to  be  placed  by  the  side  of 
those  of  his  friend  Junius,  who  spoke  of  Mr.  Wilkes 
to  his  Sovereign  in  the  words  following. 

"  Hitherto,  Sir,  you  had  been  sacrificed  to  the 
prejudices  and  passions  of  others.  With  what 
firmness  will  you  bear  the  mention  of  your  own? 

"A  man,  not  very  honorably  distinguished  in  the 
world,  commences  a  formal  attack  upon  your  favor- 
ite [Lord  Bute],  considering  nothing  but  how  he 
might  best  expose  his  person  and  principles  to  de- 
testation, and  the  national  character  of  his  country- 
men to  contempt.  The  natives  of  that  country.  Sir, 
are  as  much  distinguished  by  a  peculiar  character,  as 
by  your  Majesty's  favor.  Like  anotherchosen  people, 
they  have  been  conducted  into  the  land  of  plenty, 
where  they  find  themselves  eff'ectually  marked,  and 
divided  from  mankind.  There  is  hardly  a  period  at 
which  the  most  irregular  character  may  not  be  redeem- 
ed. The  mistakes  of  one  sex  find  a  retreat  in  patrio- 
tism ;  those  of  the  other,  in  devotion.     Mr.  Wilkes 


68  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

brought  with  him  into  politics  the  same  liberal 
sentiments  by  which  his  private  conduct  had  been 
directed,  and  seemed  to  think,  that,  as  there  are  few 
excesses  in  which  an  Enghsh  gentleman  may  not  be 
permitted  to  indulge,  the  same  latitude  was  allowed 
him  in  the  choice  of  his  political  principles,  and  in 
the  spirit  of  maintaining  them.  I  mean  to  state,  not 
entirely  to  defend,  his  conduct.  In  the  earnestness 
of  his  zeal,  he  suffered  some  unwarrantable  insinua- 
tions to  escape  him.  He  said  more  than  moderate 
men  would  justify  ;  but  not  enough  to  entitle  him  to 
the  honor  of  your  Majesty's  personal  resentment. 
The  rays  of  Royal  indignation,  collected  upon  him, 
served  only  to  illuminate,  and  could  not  consume. 
Animated  by  the  favor  of  the  people  on  one  side, 
and  heated  by  persecution  on  the  other,  his  views 
and  sentiments  changed  with  his  situation.  Hardly 
serious  at  first,  he  is  now  an  enthusiast.  The  cold- 
est bodies  warm  with  opposition,  the  hardest  sparkle 
in  collision.  There  is  a  holy  mistaken  zeal  in  poli- 
tics as  well  as  religion.  By  persuading  others  we 
convince  ourselves.  The  passions  are  engaged,  and 
create  a  maternal  affection  in  the  mind,  which  forces 
us  to  love  the  cause,  for  which  we  suffer.  Is  this  a 
contention  worthy  of  a  King  1  Are  you  not  sensible 
how  much  the  meanness  of  the  cause  gives  an  air  of 
ridicule  to  the  serious  difficulties  into  which  you 
have  been  betrayed  ?  The  destruction  of  one  man 
has  been  now,  for  many  years,  the  sole  object  of 
your  government ;  and  if  there  can  be  any  thing  still 
more  disgraceful,  we  have  seen,  for  such  an  object, 
the  utmost  influence  of  the  executive  power,  and 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  gg 

every  ministerial  artifice,  exerted  without  success. 
Nor  can  you  ever  succeed,  unless  he  should  be  im- 
prudent enough  to  forfeit  the  protection  of  those 
laws,  to  which  you  owe  your  crown,  or  unless  your 
ministers  should  persuade  you  to  make  it  a  question 
of  force  alone,  and  try  the  whole  strength  of  govern- 
ment in  opposition  to  the  people.  The  lessens  he 
has  received  from  experience,  will  probably  guard 
him  from  such  excess  of  folly  ;  and  in  your  Majesty's 
virtues  we  find  an  unquestionable  assurance  that  no 
illegal  violence  will  be  attempted." — "  Not  contented 
with  making  Mr.  Wilkes  a  man  of  importance,  they 
[the  ministers]  have  judiciously  transferred  the 
question,  from  the  rights  and  interests  of  one  man,  to 
the  most  important  rights  and  interests  of  the  people, 
and  forced  your  subjects,  from  wishing  well  to  the 
cause   of  an   individual,   to   unite  with  him  in   their 

0W71."  * 

I  can  by  no  comment  add  weight  to  the  passage 
here  cited.  The  whole  address  is  momentous  and 
solemn.  It  comes  hke  a  heavy  body  falling  from  a 
great  height.  What  is  there  in  the  royal  mind 
that  hardens  the  heart  against  impressions  from  on 
high  1  Moses  and  Aaron,  though  commissioned  by 
Heaven,  could  not  correct  its  errors  by  words.  Judg- 
ments and  plagues  were  the  only  remedies.  Com- 
pare the  whole  Letter  of  Junius  to  the  King  with 
what  occasionally  fell  from  Lord  Chatham  in  Parlia- 
ment when  speaking  on  the  various  subjects  of  it, 
and  you  will  perceive  a  unity  of  thought,   an  unani- 

*  JuNius's  Address  to  the  King,  19  December,  1769. 


70  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

mousness  of  opinion,  much  more  to  be  regarded  than 
the  sameness  of  phraseology. 

We  have  seen  England's  wisest  men  discarded ; 
and  ignorance  and  presumption  take  their  places, 
in  men  notoriously  incompetent  to  their  stations. 
That  ship  must  be  in  danger  which  attempts  the  wide 
and  trackless  ocean  in  the  darkness  of  night  and  in  a 
gathering  storm,  with  inexperienced  officers  and 
crew. 

What  increased  the  embarrassments  of  the  King 
and  his  new  servants,  was  the  discontented  state  of 
these  JYorth  American  Colonies.  They  could  not  but 
see  dark  and  rolling  clouds  in  the  JVest  forboding  a 
storm,  engendered  by  a  rash  attempt  to  tax  unrepre- 
sented subjects  at  three  thousand  miles'  distance. 
Although  George  the  Third  had  then  an  able  and 
honest  minister,  George  Grenville,  he  soon  found  that 
he  must  retrace  his  steps.  Junius  tells  the  tale,  in 
a  very  few  words,  and  in  his  masterly  manner,  thus, 
— '.'  Under  one  administration  the  stamp-act  is  made  ; 
under  the  second  it  is  repealed ;  under  the  third,  in 
spite  of  all  experience,  a  new  mode  of  taxing  the 
colonies  is  invented,  and  a  question  revived  which 
ought  to  have  been  buried  in  oblivion.''^  * 

At  this  time  the  experienced  pilot,  Chatham,  had 
retired  to  a  distance  from  the  capital,  grievously  tor- 
mented with  gout,  complicated  with  "  nervous  "  dis- 
order. He  seemed  sinking  under  a  heavy  load  of 
disease,  and  suffering  morbid  and  mental  affliction, 
as  is  always  the  case  in  hypochondriacal  maladies. 
According  to  his  enemies,  it  arose  from  feeling  him- 

*  See  the  First  Letter  of  Junius,  dated  the  21st  of  January,  1769. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  71 

self  neglected,  and  the  government  going  on  with- 
out his  advice  or  assistance.  But  this  is  judging  a 
very  great  man  by  a  vulgar  standard.  Lord  Chat- 
ham had  arrived  at  a  climacterical  period  of  human 
hfe,  noted  as  critical  from  the  earliest  records  of  med- 
icine, an  alteration  in  the  human  body,  depending  on 
its  laws  of  ina^ementum  and  dccrementum,  rather  than 
a  Pythagorean  theory  of  the  mystical  number  seven. 
This  trying  period  in  the  life  of  man,  when  the 
grasshopper  is  a  burden  and  desire  fails,  with  his 
gouty  diathesis,  accounts  sufficiently  for  his  deplorable 
state  of  health ;  not  but  that  it  may  have  been  ag- 
gravated by  seeing  the  magnificent  pyramid  of  his 
fame  dilapidated  by  ignoble  hands.  A  man  is  often 
cheerful  under  the  loss  of  his  arms  or  his  legs,  and 
habit  frequently  renders  a  deranged  condition  of 
health  tolerable ;  but  a  wounded  spirit  who  can 
bear  ?  To  some  very  high-minded  men,  abuse,  and 
even  bitter  persecution,  are  more  tolerable  than  ne- 
glect. So  situated,  an  ancient  Roman  would  have 
destroyed  himself,  and  a  modern  one,  others ;  a 
condition  which  a  truly  great  man,  and  a  Christian, 
would  patiently  bear  under  to  the  destined  end ;  as 
did  Chatham  then,  and  Napoleon  since. 

In  the  year  1768,  our  great  statesman  resigned 
the  only  post  he  had  retained,  that  of  privy-seal.  It 
was  remarkable,  that  on  this  occasion  he  did  not  go 
to  court,  as  is  usual,  but  sent  the  seals  to  his  Majesty 
by  his  intimate  and  revered  friend  Lord  Camden. 
The  retired  minister's  disgust  was  too  manifest,  and 
his  resentment  too  strong  to  be  for  ever  concealed. 
He  felt,  as  he  declared  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that 


72  PRELIMINARY  VIEW. 

he  had  been  deceived  and  duped  from  a  very  high 
source  under  the  guise  of  particular  kindriess  and 
marked  personal  respect.  He  himself  constitution- 
ally and  rationally  honest,  abhorred  deceit  and  hy- 
pocrisy. In  former  ages,  and  in  absolutely  despotic 
governments  such  a  powerful  man  as  Pitt,  Earl  of 
Chatham,  a  minister  whose  transcendent  abilities 
overshadowed  Majesty  itself,  would  have  been  cut 
off  by  some  violent  death,  while  the  monarch  was 
surrounded  by  innumerable  guards. 

In  the  tragedy  of  empires,  Britain — "  that  pre- 
cious stone  set  in  the  silver  sea"* — exhibited  to 
surrounding  nations,  and  to  the  eye  of  philosophy,  at 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  rare  spec- 
tacle in  her  King,  his  ministers,  and  his  people.f 
The  last  scene  in  this  grand  drama  is  to  be  acted  in 
this  new  world, 

"  Where  shall  be  sung  another  golden  age, 
The  rise  of  empire,  and  of  arts, 
The  good  and  great  inspiring  epic  rage, 
The  wisest  heads  and  noblest  hearts. 

"  Not  such  as  Europe  breeds  in  her  decay  ; 
Such  as  she  bred  when  fresh  and  young, 
When  heavenly  flame  did  animate  her  clay 
By  future  poets  shall  be  sung. 

*  Shakspeare. 

f  Lord  Malmesbury  was  sent  to  Paris  in  1796  to  offer  peace,  and  it 
was  refused.  The  following  year  he  returned  a  second  time  unsuc- 
cessful. George  the  Third  was  in  1795  and  1796  dangerously  as- 
saulted in  his  state  coach  with  stones  on  his  way  to  the  parliament 
house.  Soon  after  there  was  mutiny  throughout  the  British  fleet,  and 
a  very  alarming  rebellion  in  Ireland.  During  this  state  of  affairs 
Bonaparte  was  carrying  his  victories  over  Europe  with  the  rapidity  of 
a  torrent,  and  threatening  England  with  invasion,  while  the  Sovereign 
suffered  a  relapse  of  his  insanity,  which  continued  to  the  close  of  his 
long  life. 


PRELIMINARY  VIEW.  73 

"  Westivard  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way ; 
The  four  first  acts  already  past, 
The  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day ; 
Time's  nohlest  offspring  is  the  last."  * 


*  Dean  Berkeley,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Cloyne.  This  eminent 
philosopher,  good  man,  and  venerable  prelate  came  to  America  about 
1723,  with  tlio  hope  of  establishing  a  college  for  the  education  of  our 
aboriginal  Indians.  He  resided  several  years  on  Rhode  Island,  and 
tradition  says,  he  there  wrote  his  "  Minute  Philosopher.^^  One  of  my 
parents,  who  died  at  90  years  of  age,  remembered  him  distinctly. 
Another  aged  person  had  heard  him  preach  a  charity  sermon  in  Boston, 
and  described  minutely  to  me  his  athletic  person.  He  gave  his  library, 
his  farm,  and  mansion,  called  Whitehall,  to  the  Connecticut  College, 
established  at  New  Haven. 


10 


CONCERNING 


JUNIUS  AND   HIS    LETTERS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE    FIRST    IMPRESSION    MADE    BY   JUNIUs's    LETTERS    IN  OLD 

ENGLAND,    AND    IN   NEW. THE    FIRST    QUESTION,    WHO     IS 

JUNIUS? SUSPICION    FELL    ON    THE    RIGHT    HON.    EDMUND 

BURKE. ARGUMENTS    AGAINST     THAT     SUPPOSITION. AN 

EPISODE. 

Behold  then  the  illustrious  Chatham,  retired,  filled  with 
disgust  and  resentment,  yet  silent.  Was  this  an  absolute  re- 
tirement from  all  pubUc  cares  into  the  quiet  of  domestic 
repose  ?     By  no  means.     The  perturbed  spirit  cannot  rest. 

"  O  polish'd  perturbation !  golden  care ! 
That  keep'st  the  ports  of  slumber  open  wide 
To  many  a  watchful  night ! "  * 

In  less  than  a  year  after  Lord  Chatham  withdrew  from 
office,  as  well  as  from  Parliament,  Junius  burst  forth  the 
champion  of  the  rights  of  Englishmen,  and  the  stern  vindicator 
of  the  principles  of  the  constitution. 

These  epistles  broke  upon  the  public  ear  like  thunder,  at  a 
time,  and  under  circumstances,  which  gave  them  remarkable 
force  on  a  discontented  nation.     I  say  nation,  for  these  Ameri- 

*  Shakspeare. 


76  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

can  colonies,  which  then  made  a  part  of  it,  had  become,  like  the 
Britons,  uneasy  from  the  encroachments  on  their  rights,  privi- 
leges, and  English  feelings,  since  the  second  year  after  the 
accession  of  King  George  the  Third. 

Of  these  letters  of  Junius,  the  first  appeared  on  the  21st  of 
January,  1769.  In  a  loud,  clear,  and  very  powerful  voice,  they 
called  forth  those  dormant  feelings,  which  once  constituted  the 
pride  and  glory  of  old  England  ;  but  which,  like  the  Ens 
vegetabile  in  the  chilling  season  of  winter,  had  descended 
from  the  branches  into  the  roots  of  the  English  oak,  possibly 
never  to  bud  again,  had  not  a  happy  transplantation  of  its 
suckers  to  this  congenial  soil,  encouraged  and  secured  their 
growth  for  ever.  These  animating  addresses  were  sought  after 
with  avidity  in  New  England,  and  perused  and  re-perused  with 
eagerness.  That  their  orthodoxy,  and  the  spirit  of  their  senti- 
ments and  style,  should  be  relished  here,  will  surprise  no  one, 
who  recollects  that  our  forefathers  were  actuated  by  the  same 
sentiments  and  temper  when  constrained  to  quit  their  native  land 
in  search  of  civil  and  religious  freedom.  These  celebrated 
compositions  were  congenial  to  our  clarified  puritanisra,  the 
celestial  spark  of  which  had  glimmered,  now  and  then,  in  the 
parliament  of  England  even  in  the  reign  of  the  arbitrary  Virgin 
Queen  ;  while  she  tried  in  vain  to  smother  it. 

In  1769  a  pecuUar  heroic  opinion  prevailed  in  London.  It 
was  not  exactly  the  same  with  us  as  with  our  elder  brethren  in 
England.  There  the  animating  principle  was  just  roused  from 
its  slumber  by  the  loud  and  commanding  voice  of  Junius 
Brutus  ;  who  appeared  bearing  a  lighted  torch  in  one  hand, 
to  show  the  people  their  hazardous  situation  while  sleeping  in 
the  dark  ;  and  in  the  other,  a  dagger  to  defend  Liberty  in  her 
disputed  march  through  an  host  of  enemies,  in  a  land  overlaid 
by  frivolity  and  corruption.  If  we  "  in  these  ends  of  the 
earth  "  were  not  then  quite  a-wake,  our  slumbers  were  often 
disturbed  with  dreaming  of  British  encroachments,  especially 
after  our  favorite  Pitt  had  retired  from  office,  and  obscured 
his  bright  name  in  that  of  Chatham. 


BURKE  SUSPECTED  TO  BE  JUNIUS.         77 

It  is  said  that  we  of  New  England  are  characterized  by  a 
remarkably  inquisitive  spirit.  If  curiosity  be  a  sign  of  a  vigo- 
rous intellect,  kw  people  have  a  greater  share  of  it  than  the 
native  white  men  of  this  self-governing  region.  I  can  remem- 
ber, sixty  years  ago,  that  the  great  question  agitated,  and 
eagerly  discussed,  was, —  Who  is  this  Junius  ?  this  intrepid 
and  very  able  man,  who  attacks  thus  boldly  the  highest 
official  characters  in  the  realm, — the  high  and  mighty  of  our 
glorious  nation, — the  chiefs  of  the  law, — the  selected  counsel- 
lors of  the  crown, — the  army  itself,  and  the  rich  and  com- 
pact phalanx  of  British  aristocracy  and  nobility ;  nor  stops 
there,  but  audaciously  attacks  the  Sovereign  himself,  the 
personified  majesty  of  the  whole  nation,  and  draws  him 
forth  before  his  whole  people  from  the  dark  recesses  of  his 
palace  into  open  day,  to  answer  for  his  conduct?  To  what 
rank,  class,  or  degree  must  this  lonely  man  belong,  who 
thus  sternly  and  sarcastically  upbraids,  in  a  voice  of  dig- 
nified authority,  steady  and  unfaltering,  the  ministers  and 
favorites  of  the  King, — the  head  of  the  judiciary, — the  sword- 
bearers  of  the  law, — and  the  representatives  of  the  people  ; 
accusing  them  of  violating  the  principles  of  the  constitution, 
of  lack  of  wisdom  and  knowledge,  and  of  misleading  a  young 
and  inexperienced  monarch  to  the  nation's  ruin  ? 

From  between  1769  and  1774,  the  authorship  of  Junius  was 
a  topic  of  almost  daily  conjecture  among  the  sons  of  the  Pil- 
grims. The  puzzle  seemed  to  be,  who,  among  the  great  men  of 
England  (for  great  he  must  be)  thus  daunts,  with  his  casti- 
gating pen  and  imposing  manner,  the  whole  body  of  law- 
makers and  law-expounders ;  nay,  the  army,  the  church,  and 
its  nominal  head,  exhibiting  him,  who  is,  theoretically,  too 
exalted  to  do  wrong,  as  another  Belshazzar  before  a  second 
Daniel?  From  that  time  to  this  period,  a  space  of  sixty 
years,  conjecture  has  been  wearied  in  guessing  who  that  well- 
informed  and  polished  writer, — that  steady,  uniform,  unflur- 
ried,  powerful,   and  fearless  man  could   be,  who,  rising  all  at 


78  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

once,  shook  all  that  could  be  shaken,  that  political  Jupiter, 
who  but  nodded, 

"  et  totum  nutu  tremefecit  Olympum." 


Suspicion  fell  upon  Edmund  Burke,  not  merely  on  ac- 
count of  his  superior  powers  in  debate,  and  masterly  pen ; 
but  also  from  his  station,  and  great  influence  in  the  Rocking- 
ham party,  that  noble  band  of  honorable  whigs,  so  justly 
celebrated  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  It  would  be  a  tax  upon 
patience  to  recount  and  dwell  on  the  names  of  other  men,  who 
have  each,  at  different  times,  been  imagined  the  author  of  the 
Letters  in  question,  even  down  to  General  Charles  Lee,'*'  well 
known  in  this  country  for  mediocrity  of  powers  as  a  soldier  and 
a  poHtician.  The  search  has  been  too  superficial ;  and  the  inqui- 
ry confined  rather  to  brilliant  scholars  than  profound  statesmen. 
It  seems  to  have  been  chiefly  this, — Who  among  the  British  pol- 
iticians had  studied  English  composition  so  successfully  as  to 
be  capable  of  writing  such  true  and  pohshed  examples  of  it? 
The  error  seems  to  have  been,  that  instead  of  the  soul  of 
Junius,  they  regarded  only  his  pen  ;  as  if  they  expected  to 
see  an  Oliver  Goldsmith  yoked  with  a  Nicholas  Machiavel, 
ploughing  together  the  same  field.  Instead  of  the  mind  of 
Raphael,  discernible  in  his  compositions  and  expression,  they 
have  stopped  short  to  scrutinize  and  dispute  about  his  col- 
oring. 

Mr.  Burke  stood  a  fair  candidate  for  the  honor ;  being  a 
staunch  whig,  an  able  speaker,  and  a  fine  writer.  With  a 
capacious  and  versatile  understanding,  he  resembled  a  moun- 
tain torrent,  increased  by  ceaseless  streams,  impregnated  with 
every  earthly  and  aerial  thing,  rich,  fragrant,  wholesome,  and 
otherwise,  running  free,  clear,  rapid,  and  sonorous  ;  sometimes 
turbid,  and  now  and  then  offensive  ;  but  not  marked  with  the 
undeviating  dignity,  resistless  force  and   grandeur  of  Junius, 

*  Lee  was  to  General  Washington  what  Lord  George  Sackville 
was  to  Prince  Ferdinand. 


ARGUMENTS  AGAINST  BURKE'S  BEING  JUNIUS.  79 

who  is  like  a  burning  wave  of  volcanic  source,  its  origin  in 
deeply  hidden  caverns,  beyond  the  strata  of  gold  and  glittering 
gems,  in  the  awful  region  of  earthquakes,  "  the  dark,  un- 
fathomed,  infinite  abyss."  * 

Had  the  facts  contained  in  the  Letters  of  Junius  been  all 
spread  before  Mr.  Burke,  he  might,  by  his  taste  and  patient 
attention,  have  expressed  them  to  the  understanding  with  equal 
elegance  if  not  force  ;  but  the  original  feelings  the  symptoms  of 
a  febrile  excitement,  the  rage,  the  provocatioii,  the  induce- 
ment, the  fire  in  the  embers,  perceptible  in  Junius,  and  all  that 
which  art  and  genius  could  not  have  supplied,  would  have  been 
wanting.  Could  a  man,  writing  for  fame,  for  money,  or  high 
station,  speak  like  that  terrific  being  behind  the  curtain  ?  Be- 
sides, what  extraordinary  provocation  had  Edmund  Burke  to 
speak  daggers  in  17G9,  '70,  '71,  and '72  ?  He  lived  and 
moved  under  the  patronage  of  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham, 
and  of  that  small,  but  condensed  phalanx  of  intrepid  whigs,  in 
which,  for  a  series  of  years,  he  carried  a  pair  of  colors,  and 
sometimes  appeared  to  exercise  a  higher  command.  Add  to 
this,  Burke  could  hardly  have  been  acquainted  with  the  arcana 
secretissima  of  the  court  of  England,  and  of  some  other  courts, 
with  which  it  is  evident  Junius  was  familiar,  and  with  that  of 
England  even  to  a  personal  knowledge  of  regal  affairs,  and 
even  all  the  domestic  circumstances  of  royalty;  which  appears 
from  his  treating  the  most  imposing  part  of  the  garb  of 
government  with  the  steady  composure  of  a  veteran,  grown 
grey  and  weary  in  its  gaudy  service.  Mr.  Burke  held  up 
exquisite  and  highly  wrought  small  pictures  of  East  Indian 
anecdotes,  calculated  to  excite  horror  and  indignation.  He 
frightens  you  with  his  lively  paintings,  executed  with  Dutch 
exactness,  of  the  rage,  rags,  dirt,  blood,  and  splendor  of  dis- 
tracted France  ;  and,  for  a  moment,  we  feel  the  theatrical 
effect.  The  sphere  of  his  vision,  however,  never  extended 
to  American   greatness.      He    neveivsaw  this   vast   country 

*  Milton. 


80  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

with  the  optics  of  Lord  Chatham.  Hence  he  sighed  not  over 
the  departing  greatness  of  Britain,  when  she  pressed  us  to 
draw  the  defensive  sword,  as  did  that  prophetic  statesman. 
This  passionate,  warm-hearted,  and  brihiant  son  of  Ireland, 
only  raved,  stamped,  swore,  and  cried  at  the  momentary 
dehrium  of  disordered  France.  He  saw  not  its  final  salutiferous 
effects. 

To  compare  sculptors  and  painters  with  orators  and  pohtical 
writers,  may  we  not  say  that  Burke  was  an  admirable  painter 
of  the  Venetian  school ;  that  he  was  to  Lord  Chatham  and  to 
Junius,  what  Tintoret  was  to  Michael  Angelo  and  Titian  ? 
Chatham  and  Angelo  were  original  masters ;  Burke  and  Tin- 
toret, admirably  apt  and  most  excellent  scholars.  "  I  follow," 
said  this  charming,  rapid,  and  various  painter,  (Tintoret  paint- 
ed without  previous  sketch  or  study,)  "  I  follow  Michael  Angelo 
for  my  designs,  and  Titian  for  my  coloring."  Whom  did 
Angelo  follow  ?  Whom  did  Chatham  imitate  ?  They  followed 
only  the  grand,  beautiful,  and  forcible  of  nature.  There  is 
internal  evidence  of  self-derivation  in  Junius,  as  clearly  so 
as  of  originality  in  Chatham. 

1  mistake  the  character  of  Edmund  Burke,  luxuriant  as  was 
his  genius  and  exuberant  his  fancy,  if  he  could  sustain  the 
dignified  deportment  of  indignant  Junius  for  three  years  togeth- 
er without  once  betraying  the  Irish  brogue,  or  the  smell  of 
whiskey.  Burke  seemed  to  be  excited  by  the  hectic  fever  of 
genius,  and,  at  times,  by  its  dehrium.  Furthermore,  I 
consider  the  correspondence,  carried  on  with  an  individual 
printer,  during  at  least  three  years,  under  a  mask,  which  the 
most  prying  curiosity  was  unable  to  penetrate,  as  one  of  the 
most  extraordinary  facts  in  history  ;  and  to  my  view  bordering 
on  the  wonderful.  All  which  I  regard  as  beyond  the  powers 
and  the  means  of  Mr.  Burke. 

It  may  be  said, — Why  dwell  on  the  question  of  Mr.  Burke, 
seeing  he  positively  and  repeatedly  denied  that  he  was  the 
author  of  the  Letters  in  question,  as  many  had  guessed  ?  We 
answer,  that  the  situation  and  circumstances  of  the  author, 


AN  EPISODE.  81 

whoever  he  may  be,  are  such  as  to  set  all   asseverations  at 
nought ;  on  which  we  shall  speak  more  distinctly  hereafter. 

This  question  may  be  well  asked  by  a  British  reader, — Who 
and  what  are  you,  who  thus  undertake  to  determine  the  most 
important  secret  of  our  times?  you,  born  and  dwelling  in  a  far- 
distant  region  from  us,  where,  a  little  over  two  hundred  years 
ago,  an  English  word  had  never  been  uttered  ;  a  country  abso- 
lutely unknown  four  hundred  years  since  ;  a  region,  nay,  a 
quarter  of  the  globe,  of  which  the  ancients  had  no  knowledge, 
not  even  a  tradition  of  its  existence.  Is  it  likely  that  an 
inhabitant  of  such  a  new-found  land  can  untie  a  knot  after 
all  our  efforts  have  failed  ?  The  punishment  to  be  inflicted 
for  such  an  untoward  question,  shall  be 


AN  EPISODE. 

The  land  in  which  we  dwell,  these  United  States  of  JVorth 
America,  is,  perhaps,  the  spot  on  the  globe  best  adapted  for  a 
political  camera  ohscura,*  whence  to  view  the  stationary  and 
the  moving  scenery  of  Europe.  The  distance  favors  it,  and 
our  position.  New  England,  is  well  calculated  for  contemplating 
the  interesting  planet  Great  Britain,  the  Saturn  in  the  Europe- 
an system,  w^ith  its  wondrous  ring,  its  floating  fortifications,  and 
golden  commerce.  The  wide  space  between  is  not  unfavorable 
to  this  notion,  seeing  distance  in  space  operates  like  distance 
of  time. 

The  earliest  settlement  of  New  England  was  made  by 
transplanted  Englishmen  ;  a  courageous  band,  animated  by 
religious  zeal,  of  more  than  ordinary  enterprise  and  education, 
several  of  their  leaders  being  sons  of  Oxford  and  of  Cambridge. 

*  A  camera  ohscura  is  a  sort  of  artificial  eye,  or  optical  iiiachine,  so 
constructod  that  tlie  images  of  external  objects  are  distinctly  and 
correctly  represented  in  their  true  perspective  light  and  shade,  their 
proper  colors,  and  with  al]  their  motions. 

11 


82  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

An  unmixed  population,  unaltered  language,  and  general  ac- 
quaintance with  English  history,  set  off  with  a  steady  perusal 
of  the  holy  Scriptures,  have  ever  since  enabled  us  to  consider 
deliberately  our  own  situation  and  powers,  as  well  as  the 
characteristical  temper  and  most  striking  features  of  the  British 
people,  their  noble  struggles  for  rational  freedom,  their  re- 
bellions, their  revolutions,  their  numerous  wars,  their  eminent 
men,  their  boasted  constitution  of  government,  their  general 
literature,  and  their  individual  examples  of  briUiant  genius. 
While  we  view  these  things  with  admiration,  smaller  matters 
and  little  defects  are  lost,  like  the  voice  of  their  local  com- 
batants in  the  silent  space  between  us.  In  such  remoteness, 
temporary  contentions,  adventitious  circumstantials,  hard  words, 
jealousies,  and  fears  among  rivals  are  spent  in  the  intervening 
air,  and  happily  lost  to  our  senses.  A  situation  this,  best 
adapted  to  impartial  history  ;  and  it  is  the  position  which  a 
writer  should  wish  to  occupy  when  surveying  the  condition 
and  movements  of  a  kindred  nation ;  as  proximity  is  unfavora- 
ble to  dignified  history. 

Our  situation  and  circumstances  as  a  free  and  inquisitive 
people,  violently  split  off  from  a  great  naval  and  commercial 
nation  at  three  thousand  miles'  distance,  yet  reading  the  same 
books,  writing  the  same  language,  exercised  in  the  same  system 
of  a  protestant  education,  hstening  to  the  same  dramas,  following 
in  dress  and  manners  the  same  fashions,  pathetically  affected  by 
similar  idiosyncrasies  and  superstitions,  evinced  by  our  diseases 
and  by  our  delight  in  Shakspeare,  would,  it  seems,  constitute 
us  a  people  thoroughly  British  in  our  notions,  prejudices, 
sympathies,  antipathies,  admirations,  and  theological  theories. 
The  famous  Prince  and  Bishop  TalJeyrand,  on  his  return  to 
France  from  America,  reported  to  the  French  Academy  or 
National  Institute,  that  we  were,  to  all  intents,  English.  But 
this  very  able  man  and  profound  politician  did  not  remain 
here  long  enough  to  characterize  us  exactly.  In  our  churches, 
in  the  resorts  of  merchants,  in  our  theatrical  exhibitions,  on 
board  our  ships,  in  the  structure  and  furniture  of  our  houses, 


AN  EPISODE.  83 

and  in  our  very  numerous  gay  shops,  we  seem,  to  the  eye  of 
a  transient  visiter,  a  people  merely  English ;  and  perhaps  so 
to  the  understanding  of  the  sojourner,  who  may  remark,  that 
whenever  we  utter  the  conceptions  of  our  minds,  they  are 
clothed  in  the  same  language,  literal  and  figurative  ;  yet  are 
we,  after  all,  a  somewhat  different  people  from  the  English, 
Scotch,  Irish,  Dutch,  or  French.  The  current  of  our  thoughts, 
and  the  direction  of  our  views,  are  variant  from  them  all.  We 
have  no  hereditary  chief  magistrate,  nor  royal  family,  nor 
that  imperium  in  imperio,  a  court,  with  its  perplexing,  and,  in 
some  respects,  ridiculous  appendages.  We  bend  the  knee  to 
no  earthly  fountain  of  honor ;  and  those  glistening  rills  of  it, 
so  precious  in  die  eyes  of  the  British,  reach  us  not,  but  are 
lost  in  the  intervening  ocean  ;  their  sources  or  head-springs, 
which  are  objects  of  a  species  of  worship  in  Europe,  are^ 
little  regarded  here.  Heraldry,  so  sedulously  studied  in  the 
land  of  our  forefathers,  is  here  an  unknown  science,  and  its 
terms  hardly  intelligible.  °  Hence  it  is  we  cannot  call  a  poor  old 
man.  His  Holiness,  or  any  man  whatever.  His  Sacred  Majesty. 
We  educate  our  children  to  venerate  old  age,  and  to  look 
through  the  halo  of  etiquette  to  the  man  himself;  and  we 
point  them  to  the  New  Testament,  and  teach  them  to  compare 
the  high-sounding  titles  of  the  transadanlic  priesthood  widi  the 
lives  and  doctrines  of  the  disciples  of  the  immaculate  Founder 
of  our  Holy  Religion. 

Nevertheless  our  government  is  not  absolutely  democratical, 
seeing  we  have,  in  a  qualified  sense,  a  King,  Lords,  and 
House  of  Commons,  in  our  federal  as  well  as  state  governments, 
only  they  are  elective  for  one  or  more  years,  while  the  people, 
when  they  choose  to  speak  or  act,  are  Sovereign  ;  our 
laws  are  made,  established,  and  enforced  by  the  concurrence 
of  all  the  three  branches,  as  in  England  ;  and  our  judiciary  is 
a  close  imitation  of  the  English.  The  theory  of  all  this  may 
be  expressed  in  one  word,  general  consent.  Alike  as  we  are  in 
the  forms,  the  perspicax  oculus  may  discern  a  difference 
between  the  people  of  Old  England  and  of  JVeiv.     In  the  first, 


84  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

there  is  more  of  prejudice  and  acquiescence  in  authority,  an 
obsequiousness  rather  than  a  consent.  It  is  this  sort  of  adopted 
government,  and  an  education  of  youth  in  which  corporal 
correction  is  ahnost  entirely  exckided  and  considered  igno- 
minious, and  our  singular  situation  on  the  terraqueous  globe, 
which  have  turned  the  stream  of  our  thoughts  into  channels 
and  eddies  variant  from  those  of  the  British,  or  of  any  other 
nation  upon  earth,  and  directed  our  views  to  objects,  in  some 
measure,  peculiar  to  ourselves.  But  the  Briton  who  is  only 
acquainted  with  our  merchants,  seamen,  and  journal-compilers, 
would  form  a  different  judgment. 

Never  having  bowed  the  knee  to  the  conqueror's  sword  or 
the  monarch's  sceptre,  we,  like  the  brave  sons  of  nature  in  our 
forests,  regard  and  honor  the  superior  powers  of  the  mind  if 
joined  with  heroic  deeds  ;  but  pay  little  attention  to  the  adven- 
titious garb  with  which  accident  or  blind  fortune  may  have 
clothed  men.  Hence  an  American  calls  the  chief  magistrate 
or  elective  monarch  of  his  nation  by  the  simple  name  given 
him  at  his  birth. 

Such  a  people  enjoying  almost  Indian  freedom  may  have  a 
lively  relish  for  the  best  portions  of  Grecian  and  Roman  history, 
while  the  early  British  annals  shall  not  make  the  same  impres- 
sion on  their  minds  as  is  generally  made  upon  the  prejudiced,  I 
had  almost  said  bigoted  minds  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  renowned 
island  whence  we  in  New  England  principally  sprang.  When 
we  cast  our  eyes  over  the  hazy  and  indistinct  landscape  which 
Old  England  exhibits  from  the  days  of  King  Alfred  down  to  the 
time  of  those  "  iron  barons,"  who,  in  rusty  armour,  eternized 
the  name  of  their  effigy  of  a  king  by  compelling  him  to  sign 
their  Magna  Charta,  we  find  less  to  detain  the  mind  than  if 
we  were  natives  of  England  and  subjects  of  her  king.  What 
are  the  castle-building,  bow-and-arrow  epochs  of  the  island  of 
Britain  to  us,  when  Kings  sought  security  behind  thick  walls 
of  stone  and  mounds  of  earth,  and  behind  ditches  and  draw- 
bridges, while  their  soldiery  were  cased  up  in  iron  and  brass  ; 
when  the  morals  of  the  men,  and  of  the  women  also,  were 


AN  EPISODE.  85 

thought  insecure  outside  the  walls  of  monasteries  and  nun- 
neries ?  Millions  of  people  in  these  new  states  never  saw  a 
castle,  a  monastery,  or  a  crowned  king.*  We  run  rapidly 
over,  with  little  interest,  that  portion  of  Enghsh  history 
when  fighting  and  devotion  divided  the  world.  What  deep 
interest  can  we  feel  in  the  Duke  of  Normandy,  so  famed  in 
British  herakhy  as  the  fountain  of  their  honor  ? — a  French 
adventurer,  a  sort  of  land-pirate,  who  destroyed  six  and  thirty 
churches  to  make  more  room  for  hunting,  and  who  punished 
with  the  loss  of  eyes  whoever  of  his  subjects  killed  a  stag 
or  a  wild  boar.  Yet  is  this  ruffian  king,  called  by  way 
of  eminence  "  the  Conqueror,"  acknowledged  the  rightful 
and  glorious  Sovereign  of  a  people  who  have,  with  glaring 
inconsistency,  called  JVapoleon  an  usurper, — him  who  received 
his  imperial  crown  from  a  large  majority  of  Frenchmen  in  the 
free  election  of  an  affectionate  and  admiring  people,  and  that  not 
by  right  of  conquest,  but  was  declared  "  the  LorcVs  anointed" 
according  to  the  solemn  rites  of  both  the  Galilean  and  Anglican 
churches.  We  Americans  see  all  these  things  through  optics 
of  our  own  j  and  do  not  always  use  the  sterhng  steelyard  of 
our  ancestors  when  we  weigh  these  great  personages. 

No  vestiges  of  the  delirious  crusaders  are  to  be  seen  in 
this  New  World,  nor  any  thing  to  call  to  mind  those  unsettled 
times  when  all  Christendom  united,  for  the  first  time,  to  destroy 
the  believers  in  Mahomet,  the  most  numerous  sect  upon 
earth,  and  to  recover  from  them  "  the  holy  land,"  the  scene  of 
the  life  and  sufferings  of  our  Saviour  :  a  mere  pretext,  the 
reality  being  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  every  government 
in  Europe  that  would  not  bow  in  adoration  of  the  crescent 
instead  of  the  cross, — when  English  kings  quitted  their  thrones 
to  visit  popes  and  miserable  shrines,  and  roam  in  foreign  lands 

*  On  the  banks  of  the  Delaware  now  resides  Joseph  BonnpaHe,  the 
quondam  king  of  Spain,  greatly  esteemed  and  respected  by  his 
neighbours  ;  a  man  of  whom  Napoleon  said  that  "  he  ivas  too  good  to  he  a 
King:' 


86  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

in  search  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  while  the  most  erudite 
spent  their  lives  in  searching  for  the  living  among  the  dead. 
Except  to  the  mere  antiquarian,  and  the  learned  law-coun- 
sellor, there  is  very  little  of  the  English  history  that  is 
interesting  to  us  before  we  come  to  the  period  of  Henry  the 
Eighth,  and  that  chiefly  because  it  is  connected  with  his 
more  meritorious  contemporaries  on  the  thrones  of  France, 
Germany,  and  Turkey.* 

Elizabeth  indeed  calls  forth  curiosity,  as  her  history  has 
in  it  diat  which  rivets  attention,  because  the  latter  part  of  her 
brilliant  reign  is  a  portion  of  our  own  earliest  history.  It  was 
owing  to  that  great  woman's  love  of  finery, f  gorgeous  parades, 
sacerdotal  pomp,  and  solemn  nonsense,  that  the  wilderness  of 
North  America  was  peopled  by  an  heroic  race  of  Puritans, 
who  ultimately  divided  one  half  of  the  British  empire  from  the 
other.J  Such  an  emigration  or  expatriation  is  not  to  be  found 
on  the  records  of  mankind.  The  exodus  of  the  Jews  from 
Egypt  to  the  land  of  plenty,  of  the  Trojans  from  Greece  to 
Latium,  of  the  Goths  to  Italy,  of  the  Spaniards  to  South  America 
in  search  of  gold  and  silver,  shrink  to  nothing  in  point  of  heroic 
enterprise,  when  compared  with  the  embarkation  of  men  of  the 
middle  rank  of  life,  with  their  wives  and  children,  to  go  they 
knew  not  whither,  to  meet  they  knew  not  what  or  whom,  their 
object  to  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  their  con- 
science. Matchless  Heroism  !  "  They  left  their  native  land," 
says  Junius,  "  in  search  of  freedom,  and  found  it  in  a  des- 
ert." §  A  country  settled  by  such  a  people,  encouraged  to 
it  by  such  motives,  will  breed  a  race  who  will  think  for  them- 
selves, govern  themselves,  and  worship  the  only  One,  Infinite, 
Self-existing  Being  in  their  own  way. 

*  Francis  the  First,  Emperor  Charles  the  Fifth,  and  Solyman  the 
Magnificent. 

f  David  Hume  expresses  the  like  idea. 
X  See  the  first  Letter  of  Junius. 
§  Letter  to  the  King. 


AN  EPISODE.  97 

Elizabeth  was  assuredly  a  powerful  and  extraordinary 
woman  ;  but  the  splendor  and  felicities  of  her  reign  have  not 
so  dazzled  our  eyes  as  to  prevent  us  from  seeing  the  weak 
parts  of  her  character,  and  the  slavish  cast  of  her  servile  Par- 
hament,*  in  which,  however,  happily  lurked  a  small  spark  of 
Puritanism,  enough  to  enlighten  this  country  at  the  beginning, 
and  from  a  small  matter  to  make  us  what  we  are. 

Very  many  people  of  Great  Britain,  and  not  a  few  of  the  Brit- 
ish historians,  in  giving  the  character  of  "  the  Virgin  Queen," 
dwell  too  much  upon  her  treatment  of  the  beautiful  and  impru- 
dent Mary  (^ueen  of  Scots,  whom  she  was  constrained  to  keep 
in  considerate  confinement  many  years.  They  rest  the  natu- 
ral character  of  Elizabeth  almost  entirely  upon  her  putative 
envy  of  the  personal  charms  so  largely  shared  by  Mary  and 
so  scantily  given  to  Elizabeth.  Something  may  possibly  be 
attributed  to  a  sexual  characteristic,  but  nothing  like  what  has 
been  made  of  it.  It  is  a  superficial  view  of  a  regal  character, 
and  beneath  the  dignity  of  a  national  history.  What  is  the 
beauty  of  queens  to  any  one  but  the  poet,  the  painter,  and  that 
corruptor  of  chaste  history,  the  novelist,  though  tricked  out 
by  the  fanciful  pen  of  a  Burke  ?  I  have  seen  his  wonderful 
Austrian  Princess,  at  the  height  of  her  personal  splendor  and 
happiness,  as  Q^ueen  of  France,  without  absolute  fascination, — 
without  being  dazzled  by  the  sight  into  undiscerning  amaze- 
ment ;  and  am  persuaded  that  I  could  have  gazed  with 
admiration  on  the  more  beautiful  and  accomplished  Mary 
without  forgetting  entirely  her  lineage,  her  family  connexions, 
and  her  Jesuitical  education.  I  believe  there  is  in  animated 
nature  a  good  breed  and  a  bad  breed,  even  in  the  human  species, 
as  well  as  in  animals  beneath  us.  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  was 
a  Guise,  niece  to  the  famous  Duke  of  that  name,  and  to  the 
Cardinal  Lorraine.  She  was  educated  under  them,  and  under 
Catharine  de  Medicis,  three  as  pernicious  characters  as  any  in 
history.     From  these  detestable  sources  she  imbibed  her  li- 

*  Hume  says,  that  the  Parliament  in  IGOl  made  little  distinction 
between  Queen  Elizabetii  and  the  Deity. 


88  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

centious  manners  and  loose  principles,  and  anti-Anglican 
notions  of  religion  and  government ;  and  she  transmitted  to  her 
posterity  a  deep  tinge  of  all  their  corruptions.  Her  conduct 
during  her  confinement  in  the  north  of  England,  particularly 
her  correspondence  with  certain  persons  on  the  continent,  was 
such  as  to  induce  the  Parliament  to  request  the  Queen,  more 
than  once,  to  order  her  execution.  They  doubtless  saw  that 
the  question  then  was, — Who  shall  wear  the  crown  of  England, 
Mary  or  Elizabeth  ?  After  a  great  struggle,  Elizabeth  at 
length  was  brought,  as  the  Sovereign,  to  consent  to  the  death  of 
her  unhappy  relation.  In  this  she  acted  like  a  great,  just,  and 
wise  chief  magistrate.  When  she  was  informed  that  Mary 
was  beheaded,  she  wept,  raved,  and  in  her  frantic  fits  accused 
herself  and  every  one  about  her.  In  this  she  acted  like  a 
woman  ;  and  when  she  abused  and  punished  the  agent  she 
employed  in  transmitting  the  fatal  warrant,  pretending  she  had 
been  deceived  and  betrayed  into  the  bloody  measure,  she  acted 
like  a  fool.  In  such  a  distressful  case  what  can  we  say,  but — 
Alas !  poor  human  nature  !  Such  was  the  glorious  Queen 
Elizabeth,  with  better  and  more  humane  feelings  than  those 
which  marked  and  disgraced  Mary  and  Catharine. 

"  If  to  her  share  some  human  frailties  fall,  . 

View  the  whole  Queen,  and  you  '11  forget  them  all." 

In  this  vast  region  of  free  thought  and  frank  expression  of 
it,  we  can  utter  our  feelings  of  commiseration  for  the  ill- 
educated  and  deluded  King  Charles  the  First ;  and  vociferate 
our  disapprobation  of  the  worst  of  all  the  Stuart  race,  his  son. 
Nay,  further.  We  dare  weigh  Oliver^  Cromwell  himself  in  the 
scales  of  even-handed  justice,  and  freely  and  fearlessly  compare 
him  with  other  British  kings  or  conquerors,  and  declare  aloud 
our  opinions  of  them  as  men,  soldiers,  politicians,  and  Christians. 
Mr.  Hume,  in  his  systematic  history  of  England,  after  giving 
a  pretty  candid  account  of  the  actions  of  Cromwell,  sums  up 
his  character,  and  gives  a  portrait  of  him,  which  his  own 
narrative  contradicts.     Sir  Walter  Scott  has  done  juSt  so  in 


AN  EPISODE.  89 

his  history  and  character  of  Napoleon.  But  we  have  no 
king,  queen,  heir  apparent  or  presumptive,  to  gratify  and  flatter 
by  "  telling  their  fortunes."  Instead  of  that  cruel  abuse  and 
unfair  treatment,  we  only  hold  up  to  our  magistrates  the 
scripture  doctrine  of  retributive  justice,  die  simple  principle  of 
Whatsoever  a  man  sotveth  that  shall  he  also  reap. 

Being  an  independent  people,  and  separated  from  the  old 
world  by  a  thousand  leagues  of  ocean,  we  endeavour  to  think 
down  our  early  prejudices,  and  correct  in  ourselves  the  errors 
of  the  people  we  originally  sprang  from,  by  comparing  them 
with  other  nations. 

We  colonists  were  taught  from  our  infancy  to  believe,  that 
the  people  of  England  were  the  most  magnanimous,  brave,  and 
humane  race  of  men  upon  earth,  and  in  every  thing  superior 
to  the  French  except  fiddling,  dancing,  and  fencing.  The 
only  specimens  of  Frenchmen  we  had  opportunity  of  seeing 
were  mercantile  men,  born  in  the  West  India  islands,  and 
their  appearance  tended  to  confirm  our  ridiculous  ideas  of 
the  difference  in  men  who  fed  on  la  soupc  maigre,  and  the 
substantial  roast-beef  of  Old  England  ;  so  that  when  we  in  these 
colonies  were  children  in  British  leading-strings,  we  spake  as 
children  on  national  character,  we  understood  as  children,  we 
thought  as  children;  but  when  we  became  men  in  177G,  we 
put  away  most  of  our  childish  notions.  Thus,  v^hen  a  French 
army  with  General  Rochamheau  at  their  head  came  to  this 
country,  and  put  themselves  under  the  command  of  Washing- 
ton^ we  could  see,  compare,  and  judge  for  ourselves.  We 
admired  their  athletic  men,  bordering  on  the  gigantic,  and 
noticed  widi  surprise  that  one  Frenchman  generally  ate  as 
much  as  two  Englishmen,  and  drank  much  less  ;  and  found 
them  a  more  civil  and  better  behaved  people.  But  above  all 
we  were  delighted  with  their  parental  or  patriarchal  govern- 
ment of  their  soldiery,  exhibiting  a  striking  contrast  between 
the  management  of  their  men,  and  the  severe,  nay  cruel 
discipline  of  the  British  and  German  troops.  In  one  army  no 
drunkenness  was  to  be  seen  ;  in  the  other,  sobriety  could  hardly 

12 


90  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

be  maintained  without  the  degrading  lash.  There  was  so 
little  of  corporal  punishment  in  the  French  camp  compared 
with  the  British  and  Germans,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Rhode 
Island,  at  last,  suspected  that  their  "  good  and  great  aUies  " 
punished  their  soldiers  privately  ;  but  the  real  fact  was,  the 
French  captain  treated  his  men  as  his  children,  and  addressed 
them  as  such,  while  the  British  and  the  Germans  treated  their 
rank  and  file  more  like  slaves.* 

It  is  a  very  serious  fact  worthy  the  attention  of  that  transat- 
lantic power  whom  it  most  concerns,  that  the  shocking  and 
incessant  whippings  in  the  British  garrisons  in  America,  and 
particularly  in  that  of  Boston,  long  before  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill,,  tended  more  to  reconcile  even  the  tories,  royaUsts,  or 
"  the  King's  friends."  to  a  separation  from  the  mother  country 
than  any  other  circumstance  before  that  memorable  battle. 
The  native  inhabitants  of  both  parties  considered  it  treating 
white-men  as  badly  as  they  conceived  slave-holders  treated 
negroes.  They  revolted  at  the  idea  of  their  children  being 
thus  dealt  with  hereafter  by  commissioned  officers,  author- 
ized by  the  King  to  keep  them  in  subjection.  Some  have 
said  that  England  lost  the  affection  of  die  colonists  by  neglect- 
ing entirely  the  study  of  the  human  heart ;  and  there  is  more 
truth  in  the  remark  than  ever  the  executive  and  legislative 
branches  of  the  British  government  conceived. 

Whatever  faults  may  yet  remain  in  us  uncorrected,  cruelty  and 
inhumanity  belong  not  to  the  American  character.  The  opposite 
character  is  conspicuous  throughout  the  war  of  independ- 
ence, and  the  glorious  war  for  sailors'  rights  against  impress- 

*  Among  the  Germans  corporal  punishment  was  extended  beyond 
the  rank  and  file.  It  was  the  duty  of  two  young  surgeons  to  remain  all 
night  in  the  military  hospital  at  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  where  were 
some  very  sick.  The  superior  officer  of  the  German  medical  staff  went 
to  the  hospital  in  the  evening,  and  discovered  that  the  two  mates  were 
gone  to  a  dance.  For  this  desertion  from  their  duty  he  caused  them  to 
be  tied  neck  and  heels  ;  and  they  suffered  under  the  beastly  punishment 
during  one  hour.  Had  this  been  done  in  the  American  or  British  army, 
it  would  have  cost  the  Physician  General  his  brains. 


AN  EPISODE.  91 

ment  by  ^foreign  power.*  Whigs  and  tories  equally  abhorred 
the  cruel  whippings  of  soldiers  for  intoxication  and  sleepiness, 
or  even  for  desertion.  The  inhabitants  of  Boston  hated 
the  very  name  and  sight  of  a  Britisli  soldier,  and  actually  drove 
two  regiments  out  of  their  city  to  take  shelter  at  Castle  William 
on  an  island  five  miles  from  the  town,  before  any  absolute  or  reg- 
ular hostility  commenced.  Yet  their  feelings  revolted  at  seeing 
young  men,  some  who  had  hardly  attained  the  full  growth  of 
men,  stripped  to  their  skins,  in  winter,  and  tied  to  a  post,  and, 
in  that  immovahle  posture,  several  men  made  to  inflict  upon 
each  of  them  500  lashes  with  knotted  cords,  nine  in  number, 
making  4,500  stripes  on  the  tender  and  very  sensitive  skin  of  a 
human  being.  The  agony  of  die  sufferers  is  beyond  the  power 
of  expression  by  words,  and  under  it  they  frequently  die. 
This  is  no  exaggeration.  1  assert  it  from  medical  authority, 
and  repeat  it  from  the  highest  authority,  namely,  Junius,  who 
subjoins  in  a  note  to  that  portion  of  his  celebrated  Letter  to  his 
Sovereign,  where  he  mentions  the  army,  the  words  following  : 
— "  So  much  for  the  officers.  The  private  men  have  four 
pence  a  day  to  subsist  on,  and  five  hundred  lashes  if  they 
desert.      Under  this  punishment  they  frequently  expire.''^ 

Such  a  practice  is  a  disgrace  to  any  government  upon  earth, 
and  an  abomination  to  that  one  which  is  ever  boasting  of  its 
characteristic  humanity.  Take  a  dog  or  a  horse  and  carefully 
divest  him  of  his  hair,  that  is,  his  clothing,  bind  him  fast  to  a 
post  and  then  set  half  a  dozen  men,  for  less  would  be  tired 
out,  to  inflict  upon  him  from  500  to  1000  lashes,  and  I  ques- 
tion v/hether  the  inhabitants  of  any  city,  unless  it  had  a  very 
numerous  and  overwhelming  British  or  German  garrison,  would 
remain  quiet  while  such  cruelty  was  carrying  into  execution. 
Yet  is  this  degree  of  barbarity  perpetrated  on  a  human  being 
endowed  with  the  keenest  bodily  and  the  highest  mental  sen- 
sibility of  any  animal  in  the  scale  of  sublunary  beings,  and  that  by 

*  I  say  foreign  power  ;  being  convinced  that  it  is  right,  fair,  and  just 
to  compel  our  owji  seamen  to  enter  our  own  ships  of  war,  wlien  any 
sudden  emergency  shall  threaten  the  vital  interests  of  commerce  or 
the  country's  safety. 


92  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

a  nation  addicted  to  prate  everlastingly  of  their  humane  dis- 
position as  one  of  their  most  amiable  traits  of  character.  An 
Englishman  is  not  so  apt  to  stab  to  the  heart  in  a  sudden  gust 
of  passion,  in  a  violent  fit  of  rage,  or  the  madness  of  jealousy, 
as  the  Spaniard,  the  Portuguese,  or  the  Italian,  and  perhaps  the 
Irishman ;  yet  has  he  a  cool,  deliberate,  and  slowly  calculating 
system  of  human  torture,  graduated  by  a  court-martial,  totally 
unknown  in  the  penal  codes  of  the  United  States  whether  civil 
or  military.  To  prove  or  to  disprove  this  allegation,  consult 
the  British  history,  examine  the  English  penal  code,  and  turn 
to  the  records  of  their  punishments  from  Henry  the  Eighth  to 
our  own  times,*  and  see  whether  we  have  calumniated  a  people 
who  were  bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh  of  our  flesh.  Nor  stop 
there,  but  scrutinize  our  motives,  and  judge  whether  what  we 
have  said  be  from  a  disposition  to  find  fault,  or  to  reform. 
This  detestation  of  degrading  and  cruel  punishments  is  not  a 
transient  whim.  It  pervades  New  England,  where  the  inhabit 
tants  are  all  of  one  color  ;  it  reigns  in  our  schools,  and  adorns 
our  courts  of  law.  The  indecent,  the  shameful  modes  of 
punishment  inflicted  on  young  gentlemen  in  the  Westminster 
and  Eton  schools  are  thought  of  in  this  country  with  disgust 
and  abhorrence.  In  this  cardinal  point  of  degrading  and  cruel 
punishments  we  Americans  differ  widely  from  the  people  we 
sprang  from ;  and  it  has  laid  and  still  lays  a  strong  line  of 
demarcation  between  the  English  character  and  the  American. 
The  treatment  of  prisoners  of  war  justifies  our  assertion. 

Have  we  said  enough,  or  too  much,  to  show  that  instead  of 
fortifying  our  early  notions  and  juvenile  prejudices,  we  Ameri- 
cans try  to  reason  down  bigotry,  that  we  may  be  able  to  judge  of 
the  sovereigns  of  the  British,  of  their  hereditary  aristocracy,  of 
their  government,  and  of  their  people,  as  deliberately  as  we  do  of 

*  Within  the  current  year  appeared  in  our  newspapers  an  article 
taken  from  an  English  paper,  stating  that  two  sergeants  belonging  to 
a  certain  British  regiment  quartered  in  Ireland,  were  sentenced  to 
receive  each  a  thousand  lashes,  that  one  received  upwards  of  600,  the 
other  upwards  of  500,  when  they  were  unbound  lest  they  should  expire 
under  the  torture. 


AN  EPISODE.  93 

the  characters  and  the  affairs  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  ?  Have 
we  rendered  it  probable  that  we  are,  in  a  good  measure,  divested 
of  many  idle  notions,  undue  partialities  and  practices,  prevalent 
in  the  land  of  our  ancestors  ?  Not  that  we  advocate  the  eradica- 
tion of  all  prejudices  ;  some  of  which  are  necessary  to  our 
happiness  if  not  existence,  outrunning  the  slow  pace  of  reason, 
and  partaking  more  of  instinct ;  as  the  love  of  parents,  and  of 
our  native  country,  which  it  would  be  wicked  to  smother,  since 
they  are  implanted  in  our  very  nature  to  supply  the  place  of 
reason,  and  are  strongest  where  that  is  weakest. 

We  whose  native  language  is  English,  possess  a  vast  region 
of  the  globe,  varied  in  climate  and  still  more  in  fertility, 
diversified  by  mountains  and  valleys,  the  whole  interposed 
between  the  boundless  Pacific  and  Atlantic  oceans,  and  all 
connected  together  by  navigable  rivers  of  unparalleled  extent 
and  magnitude,  with  interior  seas  greatly  surpassing  those  in  any 
other  quarter  of  the  globe,  and  rapidly  traversed  by  the  force 
of  steam,  a  powerful  but  invisible  agent,  destined  to  expedite 
civilization,  far  more  rapid  (yet  managable)  than  the  wind  itself. 
Neither  Greeks,  Romans,  nor  Phcenicians  had  any  knowledge 
or  even  tradition  of  this  vast  country.  The  two  first  called  all 
the  more  northern  people  Scythians,  and  all  the  western 
Celta,  indiscriminately.  Of  Africa,  they  had  no  other  knowl- 
edge than  the  nearest  part  of  Ethiopia,  nor  even  of  Asia 
beyond  the  Ganges.*  The  boasted  travels  of  certain  philoso- 
phers and  conquerors,  so  extraordinary  during  the  epoch  of 
Grecian  splendor,  excite  a  smile  when  compared  with  the 
voyages  in  our  own  days. 

Having  then,  a  wider  horizon  and  fewer  fables  than  the  Greeks 
or  Romans,  and  standing  upon  the  shoulders  of  the  British  phi- 
losophers and  politicians,  we  ought  to  see  farther  than  they. 
Since  the  mariner's  compass  has  aided  commerce  to  bind  a 
discordant  world  together  in  a  golden  chain,  and  since  gun- 
powder has   equalized   the   contests  of  battle,   and  the  art  of 

*  See  Bacon's  Novum  Organmn,  Part.  I.  Sect.  iv. 


94  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

printing  given  wings  to  literature,  a  new  order  of  things, 
undreamt  of  by  the  ancients,  has  taken  place.  With  these 
advantages,  and  several  others  untold,  we  ventured  half  a 
century  ago  upon  the  experiment  of  self-government,  and 
succeeded  to  our  utmost  wish  ;  our  success  being  accompanied 
with  a  new  and  remarkable  fact  in  the  history  of  nations,  which 
stamps  us  a  peculiar  people.  I  mean,  that  during  a  ten  years' 
dispute  in  words,  and  a  seven  years'  contest  in  arms,  we  had 
no  v^ry  great  and  leading  man  amongst  us,  to  whose  particular 
and  individual  foresight,  wisdom,  and  personal  address,  we  can 
or  ought  to  give  the  lofty  title  of  Liberator  or  Saviour  of 
his  country.  The  memoirs  of  Frankhn,  and  the  printed  letters 
of  Washington,  evince  this.  There  was  too  much  diffused  wis- 
dom in  the  great  body  of  the  people,  and  too  much  integrity  in 
their  representatives  to  admit  an  overshadowing  of  any  individual 
leader.  It  was  the  wisdom  of  the  people  that  made  Washington 
what  he  was,  from  the  very  best  of  materials  ;  and  he  reflected 
back  upon  them  his  glorious  character.  Less  conspicuous 
but  by  no  means  less  efficacious  were  the  unwearied  labors  of 
Samuel  Adams  in  New  England,  and  Benjamin  Franklin 
in  Europe.  But  neither  of  them  could  ever  have  pushed 
forward  a  family  interest  an  inch,  had  he  tried.  George 
Washington  was  drawn  out  from  his  hberal  retirement  by  the 
voice  of  a  judicious  community.  The  people  felt  an  irresisti- 
ble confidence,  that,  under  God,  they  were  to  be  free  by  their 
own  energy,  wisdom,  and  courage,  through  the  guiding  influ- 
ence of  honest  statesmen,  and  a  cool,  very  prudent,  republican 
General.  And  the  one  destined  to  lead  was  replete  with  that 
determined  patriotic  spirit,  which  reigned  and  triumphed 
throughout  our  seven  years'  struggle  for  independence,  and 
eight  years  afterwards.  Yet  ten  years  anterior  to  his  public 
appearance,  the  unconquerable  spirh  of  Independence,  "  lord 
of  the  lion  heart  and  eagle  eye,"  inspired  the  souls  of  some  in 
New  England,  particularly  one,  who  with  a  prophet's  foresight, 
and  the  persevering  zeal  of  a  reformer,  united  the  fearless 
heart  of  a  martyr.     He   did  more  than    sow   the    seeds  of 


AN  EPISODE.  95 

independence  in  a  Puritan  soil ;  he  first  touched  and  then 
managed  those  secret  springs  which  separated  us  from  the 
mother  country,  and  insensibly  brought  forward  that  great  and 
modest  man,  to  whom  a  grateful  people  spontaneously  gave  the 
most  honorable  and  endearing  of  titles, — The  Father  of 
His  Country.* 

Although  derived  principally  from  an  Enghsh  stock,  we  are 
yet  theoretically  and  habitually  a  difl'erent  people.  It  is  from 
that  memorable  era  of  freedom  denominated  in  England  the 
glorious  Revolution  of  1G88,  that  we  Americans  trace  a 
common  principle  of  liberty  with  the  English.  It  was  when  they 
called  in  a  Dutchman  to  fill  the  throne  of  Great  Britain  ;  a  man 
like  our  Washington,  "  silent  and  thoughtful ;  given  to  hear  and 
inquire  ;  of  a  sound  and  steady  understanding ;  firm  in  what 
he  once  resolved  or  once  denied  ;  strongly  intent  on  business, 
little  on  pleasure  ;  by  these  virtues  he  engaged  the  attention  of 
all  men."  f  Anterior  to  this  epoch  of  whig  principles,  we  are 
seldom  disposed  to  cite  English  authorities  ;  for  what  is  there 
for  veneration  or  example  in  the  Plantagenets,  Tudors,  or 
Stuarts,  or  in  their  imported  queens  ?  We  hold  in  high  esti- 
mation the  faithful  history  of  that  wise,  brave,  and  prudent 
people  the  Dutch,  a  race  of  men  renowned  for  industry, 
sobriety,  and  learning,  who  have  made  their  country,  in  spite 
of  unpropitious  nature,  the  most  convenient  and  wonderful 
territory  upon  earth,  bearing  marks  throughout  of  a  sagacious, 
wise,  and  moral  people,  and  whose  metropolis  not  very  long  ago 
was  the  emporium  of  the  world.  J  They  are  a  people  who  not 
only  excel  in  what  may  be  called  the  economy  of  human  life, 
but  in  learning  also.  May  it  not  be  said  of  that  small  territory 
denominated  the  Seven  Provinces  of  Holland,  that  it  contains 

*  Washington  never  ceased  to  betray  marks  of  uneasiness  when-  <&" 
ever  complimented  as  The  great  man  of  the  revolution.     Ho  used  to 
say — "  /  claim  only  the  honor  of  commanding  a  brave  and  patriotic 
army  in  obedience  to  Congress." 

t  Hume's  character  of  King  William  the  Tliird. 

I  Amsterdam. 


96  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

more  learning  thao  any  district  of  its  size,  that  is  or  ever  was  in 
tlie  world  ? 

I  am  not  certain  that  we  could  follow  the  literature  and  phi- 
losophy of  a  wiser  nation  than  the  British  or  the  Dutch.  But 
why  follow  any,  seeing  our  vantage-ground  excels  that  of 
either  ?  We  occupy  a  spot  clear  of  false  doctrines,  and  an- 
tiquated opinions  on  most  subjects.  We  should  ever  bear  in 
mind,  that  whoever  follows  must  of  necessity  go  behind. 

Next  after  surmounting  national  prejudices,  and  local  super- 
stitions, is  the  heroic  effort  to  rise  above  the  prejudice  of  time, 
lest  we  too  become  nailed  to  the  opinion  that  the  ancients 
monopolized  knowledge.  Great,  very  great,  as  some  of  them 
certainly  were,  take  them  in  the  aggregate,  we  shall  find  them 
behind  us,  whatever  some  men  of  deep  classical  learning  may 
imagine.  Nor  is  that  a  matter  for  surprise,  seeing  venerable 
antiquity  is  in  fact  the  youth  of  the  world,  and  our  times  the 
age  of  maturity  and  riper  judgment,  and  greater  experience, 
and  infinitely  greater  variety  of  knowledge.  Shall  we  then, 
who  live  in  the  more  advanced  age  of  the  world,  indulge  the 
idle  disposition  of  confining  our  views  to  the  narrow  specula- 
tions of  the  ancients.  The  history  of  little  more  than  a 
thousand  years  comprises  all  they  knew.  Great  as  some  of 
the  ancients  confessedly  were,  it  is  a  diminution  of  the  majesty 
of  mind  to  be  awe-struck  by  the  genius  and  industry  of  the 
most  eminent  of  them. 

Have  we  in  this  reverie  done  injustice  to  any  ?  for  "  I  am 
really,"  to  use  the  words  of  Pope,  "  so  far  gone  as  to  take 
pleasure  in  reveries  of  this  kind."  I  will  put  an  end  to  them 
with  saying,  that  the  separation  of  interests  and  of  government 
which  took  place  about  fifty  years  ago  between  America  and 
Great  Britain,  has  not  diminished  in  our  eyes  the  brightness  of 
that  glorious  constellation  of  genius  and  learning  which  marks 
and  dignifies  the  reign  of  the  Virgin  Queen.  We  gaze  at  it 
from  our  observatory  with  undiminished  admiration.  Happy 
Elizabeth !  to  have  flourished  in  the  era  of  Bacon  and 
Shakspeare  !  Fortunate  Alexander  !  to  have  run  his  race  of 
glory  in  the  days  of  Aristotle  and  Plato  ! 


CHAPTER  II. 


IMPOSSIBLE     THAT     JUNIUS     COULD      HAVE      BEEN     THE     SOLE 

DEPOSITARY  OF  HIS   OWN   SECRET. MUST   HAVE   BEEN  PAST 

THE   NOON   OF  LIFE. A  NOBLEMAN,  RICH,   AND  POWERFUL. 

HIS    WRITINGS     MARKED    BY    PECULIARITY    OF     STYLE.  

THEIR    TENDENCY    ALWAYS      PATRIOTIC,    AND     EXCLUSIVELY 

ENGLISH.  HIS      LETTER     TO     LORD     CAMDEN     DIFFERENT 

FROM    ALL    THE    REST. 

Sitting  down  to  our  adjusted  camera,  let  us  regard  the 
passing  scenery  across  the  Atlantic  ;  and  skipping  over  our 
digression,  unite  here  the  broken  thread  of  our  discourse. 

It  appears  to  our  view,  that  the  writings  of  Junius  emanated 
from  one  mind,  and  yet  not  without  assistance.  Some  person 
must  have  been  privy  to  them ;  but  this  aid  must  have  been 
confined  to  the  writer's  own  household,  to  his  nearest  family 
connexions  ;  subordinate  to  one  great,  overruling  mind ;  an 
affair  strictly,  virtuously,  and  sacredly  confidential,  between  per- 
sons knit  closely  together  by  affection,  and  bound  to  each  other 
by  a  congenial  feeling  of  resentment  and  of  danger,  partners 
"whose  double  bosoms  seem  to  wear  one  heart" ;  like  hus- 
band, wife,  and  daughter  by  themselves  in  a  deserted  bark  at 
sea,  to  sink  or  swim  together.  Otherwise,  the  transcription  and 
the  immediate  transmission  of  those  letters  to  one  and  the  same 
printer  could  not  have  been  accomplished,  circumstances  con- 
sidered ;  a  service  that  could  not  be  purchased  with  money  or 
enforced  by  authority.  It  must  have  been  done  through  kin- 
dred aid  alone,  it  being  that  kind  of  concern  in  which  the 
stranger  doth  not  intermeddle.  Without  such  domestic  aid 
13 


98  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

and  affectionate  conspiration,  we  cannot  conceive  that  such  an 
extraordinary  and  dangerous  correspondence  could  possibly 
have  been  carried  on  three  years  undetected,  and  have  re- 
mained undivulged  to- this  time.  None  of  the  searchers  after 
Junius  have  considered  this  point  with  due  attention. 

The  whole  series  of  Letters  indicate  the  author  of  them  to 
have  been  a  great  man,  a  rich  man,  and  an  indignant  one  ; 
for  here  "resentment  and  even  wrath  supplied  the  ordinary  stim- 
ulus of  fame,  which  the  great  man  was  contented  to  forego, 
sharpening  to  a  keen  edge  the  weapon  of  personal  indignation 
as  well  as  public  avengement.  Anger  may  be  terrible,  yet 
allowable,  provided  we  sin  not.  But  the  indignation  of  Junius 
has  been  too  often  called  rancor,  venom,  and  maUce.  If  a 
considerable  portion  of  his  Letters,  even  the  bitterest  part  of 
them,  had  been  displayed  in  poetry  instead  of  prose,  they 
would  have  been  denominated  satire,  and  not  stigmatized  as 
effusions  of  a  malignant  heart.  Did  ever  Junius  show  so  vin- 
dictive a  spirit  towards  the  Duke  of  Grafton  or  Lord  Mans- 
field, as  Burke  testified  towards  Warren  Hastings  ?  In  invec- 
tive did  he  exceed  very  much  Lord  Chathaai  in  parhament? 

The  diction  and  style  of  Junius  are  peculiarly  his  own. 
Pregnant  with  meaning,  his  language  differs  from  that  of  all  other 
writers.  A.nid  the  most  taunting  sarcasms  he  is  solemn,  haughty, 
and  impatient  j  and  whenever  he  is  disposed  to  be  playful,  it  is 
the  lion  dandling  the  ape.  He  never  attempts  to  hold  up  the 
office  of  a  king  to  ridicule,  nor  betrays  the  least  sign  of  a  wish 
to  be  one.  Neither  is  there  a  discernible  effort  to  stir  up  from 
the  dust  of  the  ground  dangerous  popular  impressions,  out- 
rageous passions,  or  wild  superstitions,  such  as  are  engendered 
between  wrath  and  ignorance,  calculated  to  move  the  legs  and 
arms  of  the  people,  rather  than  to  operate  on  their  understand- 
ing and  judgment.  Stripped  of  all  equivocation,  he  addresses 
minds  of  the  first  order.  He  lays  no  traps  for  weak  intellects, 
no  snares  for  the  unwary,  has  no  tricks  of  short-lived  policy  ;  all 
is  open  and  above-board.  He  speaks  to  his  contemporaries,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  posterity.     Though  his  awful  warnings  are 


CHARACTER  OF  HIS  STYLE.  99 

in  the  dignified  style  of  a  prophet,  he  hints  at  no  deep,  dark, 
and  portentous  designs  yet  unrevealed  ;  no  concatenation  of 
schemes  by  intriguing  Jesuits,  or  mines  of  combustibles  just 
ready  to  explode  under  the  people's  feet.  There  is  nothing 
like  Mr.  Burke's  hurricanes  of  eloquence,  when  beating  up  for 
volunteers  to  crusade  against  revolutionary  France,  nor  any 
attempt  to  frighten  reason  from  her  throne  that  revenge  might 
take  her  place,  nor  the  least  intimation  of  a  desire  to  subvert  or 
alter  the  English  constitution  of  government.  On  the  contrary, 
there  appear  throughout  his  energetic  pages,  loyalty  to  mon- 
archy, homage  to  truth  and  correct  morals,  and  a  venera- 
tion of  the  laws.  He  seems  neither  a  Scotchman,  Irishman, 
nor  American,  but  the  inflexible  Englishman  treading  sternly 
the  straight,  rough  path  of  truth  and  constitutional  duty. 

Junius  is  a  gentleman  ;  and  when  he  speaks  to  his  Sove- 
reign, it  is  with  studied  respect ;  when  he  alludes  to  the 
unhappy  King  Charles,  it  is  upon  such  nice  and  important 
points  in  the  life  of  that  well-intentioned  monarch,  that  they 
rather  indicate  friendship  than  a  wish  to  mortify  the  King. 
Louis  the  Fourteenth  would  have  made  a  friend  of  such  a 
counsellor ;  and  had  the  ill-educated  Charles  the  First  in- 
clined his  ear  early  to  such  an  adviser,  he  might  have  died 
in  his  palace  a  common  death,  surrounded  by  affectionate 
relatives  and  grateful  servants.  Still  there  was  something  very 
alarming  in  Junius,  from  his  invisibility,  and  the  not  knowing 
what  would  come  next.  There  seems  this  difference  between 
the  writings  of  Junius  and  the  passionate  effusions  of  Burke  ; 
the  one  shone  like  a  glittering  and  transitory  meteor  in  the 
thick  and  troubled  atmosphere  of  England,  while  the  other 
resembled  more  an  appalling  comet, — a  terrific  intruder  from 
unknown  regions  of  space,  that 

"In  dim  eclipse  disastrous  twilight  sheds 
On  half  the  nations  ;  and  with  fear  of  change 
Perplexes  monarchs.     Darken'd  so,  yet  shone 
Above  them  all  th'arch  Junius.""^ 

*  Milton,  B.  1. 


100  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

In  such  a  research  as  ours,  when  demonstration  hahs,  the 
mind  soothes  itself  by  reposing  upon  the  internal  evidence  of 
things,  as  in  solemn  matters  above  the  contentions  of  men. 
Reading  then  by  this  candle  of  the  Lord  within  us,  we  perceive 
that  although  genius  alone  produced  the  dramas  of  Shakspeare, 
and  that  strange  production  the  Vision  of  Dante,  and  the  Par- 
adise of  Milton,  it  could  not  have  raised  up  and  embodied  that 
spirit  of  Whiggism  that  burns  and  blazes  in  the  volumes  before 
us  ;  in  which,  beside  the  facts,  views,  and  reasoning,  there  is  dis- 
cernible a  spirit  of  holy  zeal  not  unlike  that  which  characterizes 
the  apostle  Paul  in  a  higher  cause  and  a  harder  task,  a  zeal 
unaided  by  the  ordinary  stimulants  of  fame  or  riches.  The 
world  was  not  rich  enough  to  purchase  such  exertions  as  those 
of  Paul  or  of  Junius. 

From  every  view  of  the  subject,  it  appears  that  the  author 
of  the  Letters  must  be  sought  among  the  very  few  great  men 
of  his  day  and  country, — the  Burleighs  and  the  Snllys  of  the 
kingdom  ;  such  men  alone  could  give  lessons  of  wisdom  to  a 
discontented  nation,  and  its  troubled  King, — lessons  which, 
while  they  compelled  attention,  excited  dismay,  like  the  fear- 
ful handwriting  on  the  palace-walls  of  the  Assyrian  king. 
The  original  conception,  the  first  resolution,  the  steady  and 
dignified  execution  of  the  golden  pages  of  Junius,  are  above 
the  minds  of  any  of  those  men  to  whom  they  have  been 
attributed,  with  the  exception,  perhaps,  of  Mr.  Burke.  What 
is  there  in  the  writings  of  Demosthenes  or  of  Cicero  that 
exceeds  them?  We  view  the  thundering  Grecian,  and  the 
clear-headed,  indefatigable  Roman,  through  the  long  shadowy 
vista  of  antiquity,  in  which  the  imagination  has  some  play, 
tending  naturally  to  exaggeration  ;  while  we  examine  and  scru- 
tinize Junius  through  a  near  and  more  famihar  umbrage. 

To  inform,  to  enlighten,  to  warn,  and  to  advise  for  the  best 
a  young  monarch,  characterized  by  an  ungovernable  self-suffi- 
ciency, or  in  fewer  words,  by  a  strong  will  and  weak  judgment, 
a  king  too  obstinate  for  patient  endurance,  yet  rather  too  good 
for   a   second   example   to   British   kings    and    subjects, — to 


JUNIUS  PAST  THE  NOON  OF  LIFE.  101 

remedy  the  disorder,  required  an  inspired  physician  ;  and  such 
a  one  was  the  English  Junius  Brutus.  The  grand  indication 
was  to  remove  something  rotten  in  the  stale  of  Britain  ;  or 
rather  "  to  infuse  a  portion  of  new  health  into  the  constitution, 
to  enable  it  to  hear  its  infirmities,'''' — a  sentence  uttered  hy 
Lord  Chatham,  and  sanctified  by  Junius.* 

There  is  internal  evidence  that  the  writer  of  the  Letters 
was  a  personage  settled  down  in  the  steadfastness  of  advanced 
life  and  confirmed  principles,  under  a  satiety  of  worldly  gran- 
deur, familiarized  with  royalty,  acquainted  with  privy  councils, 
parliaments,  and  diplomatic  affairs,  and  thoroughly  versed  in 
the  architecture  of  the  English  constitution.  There  is  a  well- 
sustained  dignity,  bordering  on  austerity,  "  which  gives  to 
Junius  the  air  and  authority  of  a  great  personage  in  disguise." 
His  experience,  the  result  of  age,  shines  out  in  his  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  army  antl  navy.  His  age  is  indicated  in 
a  private  letter  to  IMr.  Wilkes  dated  November  6,  1771,  where 
he  complains  that  no  man  writes  under  such  disadvantages  as 
himself.  "  I  cannot  consult  the  learned.  I  cannot  directly 
ask  the  opinion  of  my  acquaintance,  and  in  the  newspapers  I 
never  am  assisted.  Those  who  are  conversant  with  books, 
well  know  how  often  they  mislead  us,  when  we  have  not  a 
living  monitor  at  hand  to  assist  us  in  comparing  practice  with 
theory."  Again.  "  After  I  had  blinded  myself  with  poring 
over  journals,  debates,  and  parliamentary  history,  I  was  at  last 
obliged  to  hazard  a  bold  assertion."  This  is  in  the  plaintive 
tone  of  an  old  man,  of  a  man  of  leisure,  unassisted  in  that 
most  important  point,  legal  information  :  yet,  in  the  execu- 
tion of  his  heroic  task,  he  must  have  had  an  intellectual  aid. 
One  blade  of  a  pair  of  scissors  by  itself  is  useless.     To  cut, 

*  The  words  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham  in  Parliament,  quoted  by 
Junius,  who  calls  it  "  a  brilliant  expression,  and  full  of  intrinsic 
wisdom."  It  has  allusion  to  an  obsolete  practice  among  some  physi- 
cians in  the  17th  century,  of  transfusing  the  blood  of  young  and  healthy 
subjects  into  the  veins  of  old  and  diseased  ones.  A  more  enlightened 
physiology  and  pathology  have  exploded  both  the  theory  and  the 
practice  of  it. 


102  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

they  must  be  rivetted  together.  He  must  have  had  intellectual 
as  well  as  chirographical  aid.  The  question  is,  from  whom  ? 
and  of  what  kind  ?  If  money  could  have  purchased  it,  the 
vital  secret  would  have  been  betrayed  and  sold  for  money. 

A  haughty  spirit  pervades  the  writings  of  Junius,  and  some- 
times an  imperious,  domineering  cast  of  mind,  even  when  he 
must  have  discovered  that  he  was  wrong,  as  in  his  hasty  attack 
on  Parson  Home.  He  sometimes  uses  the  language  of  rage 
and  boiling  anger  in  terms  evidently  studied  and  carefully 
labored,  and  utters  contempt  in  phrases  highly  polished,  "  aware 
that  a  wound  may  be  given  more  deeply  with  a  burnished  than 
with  a  rusty  blade."  *  In  his  attacks  on  the  Duke  of  Grafton 
and  Lord  Mansfield,  he  too  often  descends  from  the  generality 
of  reflection  which  is  satire,  to  the  abuse  of  their  persons  which 
is  lampooning.  It  appears,  however,  more  the  result  of  keen 
resentment  than  the  voice  of  mortified  pride.  Harsh  as  it  some- 
time is,  it  partakes  not  of  that  atrabilarious  malignity,  that  long- 
engendered,  Tiberian  acrimony,  which  human  blood  alone  could 
dilute.  His  reprehensive  manner  has  more  the  air  of  the 
supernatural  inspiration  of  a  prophet,  thundering  in  the  drowsy 
ears  of  stupid  sinners,  than  the  vulgar  passion  of  a  demagogue. 
He  looks  down  with  lordly  indignation  and  generous  rage  upon 
all  time-serving  men,  from  the  palace  to  the  play-house.  In  the 
midst  of  his  political  anger,  he  evinces  an  amiable  sohcitude 
for  the  welfare  of  those  beneath  him,  as  towards  his  printer, 
Woodfal],  The  observation  of  Pliny  is  thus  confirmed,  that  your 
gay,  lively,  philanthropic  men,  distinguished  for  kindness  and 
good-humor,  are  equally  remarkable  for  sharpness  of  expres- 
sion and  severity  of  language,  when  roused  to  resentment  from 
a  sense  of  injury ;  and  experience  has  ever  since  strengthened 
the  opinion,  that  mildness  of  disposition  and  benevolence  are 
very  often  accompanied  with  the  sharpest  tone  of  invective 
against  injustice  and  cruelty.  The  solicitude  of  JuNiufe  for 
the  welfare  and  respectability  of  that  man  of  mixed  quahties, 

*  Scott. 


JUNIUS  A  NOBLEMAN,  RICH  AND  POWERFUL.  103 

John  Wilkes,  extended  even  to  his  personal  behaviour  in  the 
streets.  "  It  is  your  interest,"  says  he,  "  to  keep  up  dignity 
and  gravity  ;  beside,  I  would  not  make  myself  cheap  by  walking 
the  streets  as  much  you  do." 

Moreover,  Junius  appears  to  have  been  in  the  first  rank 
of  subjects,  like  one  who  had  retired  from  high  office  in  disgust ; 
but  who,  seeing  the  machinery  of  government  in  disorder,  and 
operating  to  its  own  destruction,  was  nevertheless  heartily 
disposed  to  save  it  from  utter  ruin,  provided  the  aiding  hand 
itself  remained  unseen ;  and  it  was  this  which  formed  the 
puzzling  cloud  that  surrounded  him,  giving  a  fearful  halo  of 
mystery  to  most  things  he  advanced.  He  was  indeed  an 
ingenious  inquisitor.  He  tortured  his  victims  alternately  with 
appalling  truths,  solemn  doubts,  and  vexatious  questions  ;  or 
with  imperfect  satisfaction,  just  sufficient  to  create  a  thirst  he 
meant  not  to  satisfy.  Anon,  he  gave  them  partial  information, 
and  inspired  them  with  a  dread  of  hearing  more.  Both  courts 
were  conscious  that  he  could  raise  up  spirits  from  the  vasty 
deep  of  the  "  infamous  peace."  *  So  situated  and  circum- 
stanced, he  predicts  events  then  only  unfolding,  and  that  in 
a  solemn  tone  of  anxious  solicitude,  and  in  a  style  oracular. 
Wearing  the  semblance  of  a  superior  being,  he  was  frightfully 
magnified  by  the  magical  influence  of  invisibility. 

In  what  prose  writer  do  we  meet  finer  figures,  more  apt 
allusions,  or  happier  metaphors,  especially  when  descending 
from  the  region  of  his  superiority,  he  shows  us,  in  accents  of 
affability,  the  plant  with  its  pregnant  buds  ;  and,  alluding  to 
the  season,  describes,  in  anticipation,  its  coming  fruit  whether 
good  or  evil.  Looking  into  the  seedsof  time,  the  seer  actually- 
foretold  which  grain  would  grow  and  which  would  not ;  and 
we  Americans  have  accordingly  hailed  him  a  venerable  prophet. 

Junius  exhibits  abundant  evidence  of  his  entire  devotion  to 
his  country.  He  regards  England  tantamount  to  all  the  rest  of 
the  world,  and  would  fain  be  to  Britain  what  the  god  Terminus 

*  Sec  Julius's  Letter  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  September,  1769. 


104  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

was  to  the  Romans,  who,  when  all  their  other  deities  were 
giving  way,  swore  he  would  not  stir  an  inch  for  Jupiter.*  He 
treats  with  qualified  respect  the  sword  and  helmet;  and  while 
he  pays  due  homage  to  the  crown  and  sceptre,  he,  now  and 
then,  casts  a  look  of  displeasure,  if  not  disdain,  on  the  wearer  ; 
for  there  is  a  feeling  too  strong  to  be  concealed,  and  too 
natural  to  be  feigned,  pervading  most  of  these  addresses,  which 
distinguishes  them  from  the  mere  Shakspearian  efforts  of  genius. 
No  !  there  is  a  pencilling  that  could  not  be  bought,  as  could  the 
labors  of  Dryden  and  Johnson  ;  a  manner  beyond  all  rules  of  art. 

Carefully  polished  as  some  of  these  letters  are,  this  hides  not 
a  something  partai^ing  of  a  morbid,  or  else  a  septuagenarian 
fretfulness,  or  both,  betraying  the  frail  and  feverish  being,  and 
linking  him  to  earth  in  despite  of  his  boasted  ethereal  umbra. 
This  is  discoverable  in  some  of  his  private  letters  to  Wilkes 
and  to  Woodfall.  Here  we  see  him  in  his  gown  and  slippers ; 
but  in  his  pubhc  letters  he  appears  full-dressed,  stern,  and 
without  a  smile.  His  closing  letter  may  be  an  exception  to 
this  remark.  It  is  addressed  to  Lord  Camden  in  terms  of  hich 
consideration  and  esteem,  and  with  evident  traits  of  equality ;  yet 
is  it  calculated  for  effect. f  It  looks  like  the  art  of  the  history 
painter,  who  sets  off  by  contrast  the  odious  character  of  an  in- 
dividual. Thus  a  skilful  French  painter,J  in  his  picture  of  the 
first  murderer,  has  added  to  him  the  figure  of  a  beautiful 
woman,  and  two  lovely  children,  in  order  to  make  the  hideous 
appear  more  horrible  in  the  countenance  of  Cain.  So  in  this 
moral  painting  by  Junius,  he  touches  and  retouches  his  picture  ; 
and  by  artful  contrast  in  the  composition,  and  deep  Rembrandtian 
shades,  the  figure  starts  horribly  from  the  canvass,  beguiling 
the  judgment  through  the  imagination. 

The  style  of  Junius  is  peculiar,  pure,  laconic,  and  magiste- 
rial ;  and  sometimes  a  provoking  manner,  a  cross-examination 


*  Restitit,  et  magno  cum  Jove  templa  tenet.     Ovid. 

t  Its  object  was  to  render  Lord  Mansfield  odious. 
t  David. 


HIS  STYLE  PECULIAR.  105 

style,  occasionally  approaching  to  truculency.  But  when  he 
calls  forth  his  full  powers,  as  in  his  first  Letter,  his  famous  one 
to  the  king,  and  a  few  others,  then  he  speaks  with  the  studied 
caution  of  a  Mansfield  ;  force,  dignity,  and  precision  pre- 
dominate over  the  rules  and  flowers  of  rhetoric.  He  ap- 
pears to  sit  upon  a  rock  and  look  down  on  his  subject,  and 
his  language  is  that  of  one  who  has  nothing  to  wish  for 
himself  or  to  fear  from  others.  He  seems  not  to  act  from 
suggestion,  advice,  or  agency,  but  his  expressions  of  reso- 
lution and  determination  come  from  his  all-sufficient  self; 
he  looks  Independence  personified.  Did  we  believe  entirely 
in  the  ancient  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  we  might 
easily  imagine  the  soul  of  Brutus  to  inhabit  the  body  of  this 
British  Peer.  In  his  stern  principles  and  energetic  conduct, 
he  appears  anoiher  Hercules,  who,  having  heard  the  lowing  of 
the  beasts,  straightway  goes  to  the  cave  of  the  robber,  and 
seizing  Cacus,  by  ?  strong  and  relentless  gripe,  drags  him 
forth  amidst  his  fire  and  smoke  to  light  and  punishment.* 

In  the  catalogue  of  great  names,  where  between  the  years 
1765  and  1770  can  we  find  such  a  demi-god  with  his  club 
and  lion's  skin  ?  Certainly  not  among  those  guessed  to  have 
been  Junius.  Is  there,  in  any  one  of  those  supposed  au- 
thors of  the  Letters  in  question,  a  writer  whose  pages  are 
marked  and  dignified  by  that  energetic,  nay  caustic  style, 
which  signalizes  those  dread  tablets  at  which  rogues,  military 
commanders,  ministers,  nobles,  princes,  and  kings  trembled  ? 
Compare  the  corrosive-sublimate  style  of  this  ghost  of  Junius 
Brutus  with  the  liquid  laudanum  strains  of  half  a  dozen 
gentlemen  to  whom  they  have  been  from  time  to  time  at- 
tributed, and  dismiss  the  notion  of  their  competition  for   ever. 

If  sensible  and  learned  men  vary  in  their  taste  concerning 
painting,  poetry,  music,  and  architecture,  it  is  no  wonder  that 
they  differ  in  opinion  concerning  the  short  compositions  of 
Junius.     An  anecdote  may  illustrate  my  meaning.     A  painter 

*  Virgil,  ^n.  viii. 
14 


106  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

asked  permission  to  copy  an  admired  head  in  my  possession  ; 
I  consented  on  condition  that  he  showed  me  the  copy.  After 
detaining  the  picture  a  long  time,  he  returned  it ;  when  I  asked 
to  see  liis  copy  of  it.  He  smiled  and  shook  his  head, — '•  I 
have  labored,"  said  he,  "  again  and  again,  and  tried  repeatedly, 
but  cannot  fetch  out  the  expression,  or  even  the  coloring  of 
the  original.  I  have  never  failed  to  satisfy  myself  before  with 
other  pictures.  What  can  be  the  reason  now  ?  "  I  replied, 
"  Because,  Sir,  that  head,  simple  as  it  seemeth,  is  the  pro- 
duction of  a  master*  intent  on  pleasing  himself,  being  his 
own  countenance."  Every  great  master,  whether  painter  or 
writer,  has  a  certain  inimitableness  of  his  own. 

So  an  adroit  literary  man  may  make  a  tolerable  imitation  of 
some  numbers  in  Johnson's  Rambler,  or  some  chapters  of 
Gibbon's  Roman  History,  or  any  sermon  of  Dr.  Blair  ;  but 
let  him  try  his  hand  on  Dean  Swift,  Dryden,  or  Addison,  and 
above  all  on  Junius  ; — or  to  come  quite  up  to  the  point  at 
once,  let  him  read  over  some  of  the  best  Letters  of  Junius,  so 
as  to  make  himself  master  of  the  subject  without  committing 
the  words  to  memory,  shut  up  the  book,  and  then  write  a 
letter  on  the  very  topic,  as  near  the  matter  and  the  style  as  he 
can,  and  afterwards  compare  his  imitation  with  the  original ; 
and  he  wnll  see  and  feel  the  difference.  An  able  and  ingenious 
writer  would  find  less  difficulty  in  imitating  the  rich  and  florid 
style  of  Gibbon,  the  Rubens  of  British  historians,  than  Junius, 
their  Michael  Angelo.f 

Disregarding,  at  present,  the  flowing  drapery  of  Junius, 
his  style  and  diction,  let  us  attend  to  the  man  himself,  and 
notice  some  particulars  which  stamp  the  mind  of  the  writer,'  if 


*  Stuart. 

f  Some  of  our  own  ingenious  political  writers  have  now  and  then 
struck  out  shining  paragraphs  very  like  some  of  the  brilliant  pages  of 
Burke.  But  the  word  like  has  a  wide  range.  Simia  quam  similis 
nobis !  How  like  a  man  is  a  monkey !  But  this  imitative  little 
creature,  how  unlike  him  who  stands  at  the  head  of  the  visible  series 
of  animated  creation! 


HIS  STYLE  PECULIAR.  107 

they  do  not  indicate  his  rank  in  society.  The  foremost  of  these 
is  his  daring  resokition,  and  invincible  determination  to  remain 
unknown,  and  the  next  is  his  po?<;er  of  carrying  his  project  into 
complete  effect.  This  is,  in  my  opinion  at  least,  a  weighty 
consideration,  as  it  confines  our  inquiry  to  a  very  small  circle  ; 
for  who  among  the  great  men  of  that  day  enjoyed  a  character 
so  great,  so  very  great,  as  voluntarily  to  endure  and  patiently 
allow  such  a  deduction  of  fame,  both  contemporary  and 
historical,  as  the  authorship  of  those  celebrated  Letters  would 
have  conferred  for  ever  on  his  name  ?  How  few,  how  very 
few  of  them  would  have  been  contented  to  go  down  to  the 
silent  grave  and  bury  there  a  crown  that  might  shine  as  con- 
spicuously as  that  which  fame  bestowed  on  Cicero  ?  Scrutinize 
the  British  list  of  great  men  from  1755  to  1760,  and  from 
that  period  to  the  year  IT 73,  and  name  us  the  man  sufficiently 
provoked,  and  likewise  capable  of  writing  those  masterly 
appeals  to  George  the  Third,  to  his  ministers,  to  the  city 
authorities,  and  to  the  people.  The  Earl  of  Temple  was 
replete  with  whig  principles,  had  full  enough  ardor,  inde- 
pendence, and  resentful  feelings;  but  he  wanted  the  talents 
for  such  a  display  of  them  as  Junius  has  made.  We  repeat 
the  question, — Who  was  so  rich,  so  very  rich  in  fame,  so 
wrapt  up  in  glory,  as  to  conclude  that  he  could  afford  such  a 
subtraction  from  his  stock  of  it,  through  a  consciousness  that 
he  should  leave  enough  behind  to  satisfy  a  wise  man  ?  This, 
considerate  reader,  is  not  a  light  argument. 

The  tantalizing,  nay,  solemn  truths  uttered  for  years  from 
beneath  a  mask,  were  often  pronounced  in  the  spirit  of  bitter 
invective,  sharpened  frequently  by  satire ;  so  was  the  coarse 
satire  of  Chrysnl,  which  preceded  Junius  about  ten  years  ;  but 
there  was  as  much  difference  between  the  weapons  of  the  one 
and  of  the  other,  as  between  the  rude  arrows  of  our  Indians  and 
the  shafts  of  Apollo.  Those  flew  at  random  from  behind 
trees  and  stumps  ;  these  never  missed  their  aim,  and  came 
from  on  high,  rankling  the  wounds  they  made,  even  to  mor- 
tification.    This  so  exasperated   the   objects  of  attack,  that 


108  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

nothing  but  the  protecting  cloud  of  personal  invisibility  secured 
the  agent  from  the  extremity  of  dire  revenge  ;  hence  every 
thing  like  truth  was  considered  secondary  to  safety.  Junius 
was  aware  that  his  invisibility  was  a  vital  secret.  Had  he 
been  discovered,  whither  could  he  have  fled  for  shelter  ? 
This  country  was  then  part  of  the  realm  ;  and  sovereigns  and 
their  ministers  in  every  country  upon  earth  were  of  course 
his  deadly  enemies  ;  for  the  dagger,  the  pistol,  poison,  and  the 
bow-string  are  not  so  much  to  be  dreaded  as  free  and  im- 
shackled  reason. 

As  Junius  could  not  but  apprehend  the  utmost  danger  to 
his  life,  fame,  and  fortune,  it  is  no  wonder  that  he  exercised 
all  the  faculties  of  his  mind,  and  feehngs  of  instinct,  to  secure 
concealment  and  elude  discovery  ;  and  taking  every  thing  we 
know,  and  every  thing  we  have  a  right  to  suppose,  we  must 
conclude  that  none  but  a  very  superior  character,  a  man 
fortunately  situated  and  circumstanced,  could  have  preserved 
the  all-important  secret.  I  conceive  that  in  the  city  of  Paris 
it  would  have  been  as  impossible  as  in  a  camp  of  veterans  ; 
but  in  London,  where  there  is  no  police,  but  where  the 
manners  of  the  people  are,  in  a  great  measure,  a  substitute  for 
it,  the  exploit  was  less  difficult.  Yet  even  there,  allowing  for 
tlie  liberty  of  the  press,  it  will  ever  remain  a  surprising  fact, 
that  such  a  political  correspondence  between  an  obnoxious 
wrher,  feared  and  detested  by  the  whole  administration,  and  a 
well  known  respectable  printer,  should  nevertheless  continue, 
with  very  little  or  no  interruption,  almost  three  years,  and  after 
all  remain  undetected  ! 

If  Mr.  Woodfall  was  ignorant  of  the  person  of  Junius,  it 
seems  that  he  knew  his  rank,  as  he  approaches  him  with  the 
greatest  deference,  if  not  awe,  as  if  addressing  a  superior 
being.  After  Junius  had  intimated  that  he  should  write  no 
more,  Woodfall  addresses  him  thus ;  "  1  hope  you  will  believe 
that  however  agreeable  to  me  it  would  be  to  be  honored  with 
your  correspondence,  I  should  never  entertain  the  most  distant 
wish  that  one  ray  of  your  splendor  should  be  diminished  by 


HIS  STYLE  PECULIAR.  109 

your  continuing  to  write."  And  when  Junius  tells  him  to 
make  the  most  of  liis  collection  of  Letters  for  his  sole  benefit, 
he  adds,  with  the  friendly  manner  and  feeling  of  high  rank  to 
an  inferior, — "  Let  your  views  in  life  be  directed  to  a  solid 
however  moderate  independence.  Without  it  no  man  can  be 
happy,  nor  even  honest." 

It  appears  that  the  great  unknown  excited  a  still  greater 
awe  in  the  imagination  of  the  hardy  Mr.  Wilkes ;  a  sort  of 
man  little  disposed  to  bow  the  head  or  bend  the  knee  in 
reverence  to  any  body  or  any  thing.  Yet  in  answer  to  a  long 
and  very  interesting  private  letter  wrhten  by  Junius  to  that 
celebrated  man  in  August,  1771,  he  betrays  an  awe  so  great  as 
to  partake  of  a  degree  of  profaneness.  These  are  his  words. 
"  1  do  not  mean,  Sir,  to  indulge  the  impertinent  curiosity  of 
finding  out  the  most  important  secret  of  the  times,  the  Author 
o/"  Junius.  I  will  not  attempt,  with  profane  hands,  to  tear  the 
sacred  veil  of  the  sanctuary  ;  I  am  disposed  with  the  in- 
habitants of  Attica  to  erect  an  altar  to  the  unknown  god  of 
our  political  idolatry ;  and  will  be  content  to  worship  him  in 
clouds  and  darkness." 

This  we  conceive  to  have  been  the  utmost  reverence  and 
respect  that  John  Wilkes  could  feel  towards  an  unknown 
superior  intelligence,  and  to  have  been  as  heartfelt  and  sincere- 
worship  as  any  heathen  ever  offered  up  at  Athens,  Rome,  or 
Corinth  ;  and  it  is  a  curious  modern  specimen  of  what  we  read 
in  our  admired  classics. 

John  Wilkes  was  by  no  means  an  ordinary  man  in  talents,  in 
education,  and  firmness  of  purpose,  and  if  we  view  him  alone 
by  himself,  he  grows  in  our  estimation  ;  but  if  we  compare 
him  with  his  unknown  correspondent,  he  shrinks  in  the  com- 
parison. Tiie  three  long  letters  written  to  Wilkes  in  August  and 
September,  1771,  are,  in  my  opinion,  admirable  as  it  regards 
the  principles  and  views  of  the  writer.  What  do  we  see  in 
them?  Hercules  coaxing  a  froward  child  to  that,  which  it 
had  not  mind  enough  to  comprehend,  relish,  and  act  up  to. 
The  difierence  between  the  master  and  the  disciple  is  striking. 


110  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

After  the  faiUive  of  this  laborious  essay  on  the  part  of  Junius, 
he  appears  to  have  given  up  Wilkes  and  all  the  "  horned 
cattle  "  of  the  city,  and  to  have  retained  a  good  opinion  of 
none  but  jNIr.  Sawbridge.  He  writes  thus  to  his  prinlei'  when 
about  ceasing  his  hazardous  labors — "  I  am  weary  of  attacking  a 
set  of  brutes  whose  writings  are  really  too  dull  to  furnish  me  with 
even  the  materials  of  contention."  And  again,  about  the  same 
time,  and  on  the  same  subject — "  Try  Mr.  Wilkes  once  more. 
Speak  for  me  in  a  most  friendly  but  firm  tone,  that  I  will  not  sub- 
mit to  be  any  longer  aspersed."  Junius  found  that  he  himself 
was  attacked  in  the  newspapers  by  the  city  sub-factions,  and  he 
suspected  that  the  Rev.  John  Home  was  the  writer  ;  and  there- 
fore he  hints  to  Woodfall  that  it  was  hardly  honorable  that  Mr. 
Wilkes  should  leave  him  alone  to  defend  himself,  but  that  he 
ought  to  take  up  the  cudgel  in  his  support,  and  therefore  he  sub- 
joins in  a  tone  of  disgust, — "  Between  ourselves,  let  me  recom- 
mend to  you  to  be  much  on  your  guard  ivith patriots.'^  In  another 
private  letter  to  his  printer, — "  1  meant  the  cause,  and  the  public. 
]3oih  are  given  up.  I  feel  for  the  honor  of  this  country,  vi^hen 
I  see  there  are  not  ten  men  in  it  who  will  unite  and  stand 
together  upon  any  one  question."  He  speaks  to  Wilkes  of 
the  insidious  arts  of  Mr.  Home,  and  urges  "  the  total  and 
absolute  renunciation  of  Mr.  Home."  This  is  said  in  a  long 
letter  to  the  "patriot"  of  21  August,  1771,  which  Junius 
concludes  thus  ; — "  This  letter.  Sir,  is  not  intended  for  a 
correct  or  polished  composition  ;  but  it  contains  the  very  best 
of  Junius's  understanding;"  and  winds  up  with  saying, — "I 
am  heartily  weary  of  writing,"  he.  In  another  private  letter 
to  Mr.  Wilkes,  September  7th,  he  says, — "  A  man,  who  hon- 
estly engages  in  a  public  cause,  must  prepare  himself  for 
events  which  will  at  once  demand  his  utmost  patience,  and 
rouse  his  warmest  indignation.  I  feel  myself,  at  this  moment, 
in  the  very  situation  I  describe  ;  yet  from  the  common  enemy 
I  expect  nothing  but  hostilities  against  the  people.  It  is  the 
conduct  of  our  friends  that  surprises  and  afflicts  me."  We 
refer  the   reader  to  the   History  of  the   Minority,  printed  in 


HIS  STYLE  PECULIAR.  HI 

London  in  1766  ;  and  the  publications  of  the  day  between 
1768  to  1771,  when  Lord  Chatham  was  incessantly  abused 
for  accej)ting  a  peerage.  Junius  wished  to  make  use  of 
Wilkes  and  of  Parson  Home  in  the  serious  business  of 
reformation,  but  was  repeatedly  thwarted  by  the  envy  and  jeal- 
ousy of  the  one,  and  the  vanity  of  the  other.  When  addressing 
the  first  he  curbs  his  indignation  and  says, — "  But  my  zeal, 
I  perceive,  betrays  me;  1  will  endeavour  to  keep  abetter 
guard  upon  my  temper,  and  apply  to  your  judgment  in  the 
most  cautious  and  measured  language."  He  then  comments 
in  his  masterly  manner  upon  the  resolutions  and  doings  of  the 
Supporters  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  convened  at  the  London 
Tavern,  July  23,  1771  :  in  which  he  appears  like  a  man  of 
great  experience  and  mature  judgment,  talking  to  children 
who  could  not  or  would  not  understand  him.  He  suspected 
Mr.  Home  to  be  the  Marplot  of  his  plan. 

The  difTerence  in  the  ability  of  the  two  writers,  Junius  and 
Wilkes,  will  appear  even  on  a  slight  examination.  The  latter 
says  to  his  unknown  correspondent, — "  These  three  days  I 
have  had  the  shivering  fits  of  a  slow,  lurking  fever,  [a  strange 
disorder  for  Wilkes,]  which  makes  writing  painful  to  me. 
I  could  plunge  the  patriot-dagger  in  the  heart  of  the  tyrant  of 
my  country,  but  my  hand  would  now  tremble  in  doing  it." 
Again,  speaking  of  revising  and  preparing  for  publication  cer- 
tain productions  of  the  supporters  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  he 
says  to  Junius, — "  At  all  times  I  hate  taking  in  other  people's 
foul  linen  to  wash  ! "  Of  what  loose  and  flimsy  texture  are 
those  letters  from  the  trembling  hand  of  the  hero  of  the  "  North 
Briton,"  contrasted  with  the  firm  and  everlasting  wai-p  and 
woof  of  those  by  Junius  !  whose  work  is  beautiful  as  strong, 
uniting  admirable  materials  with  high  finish  and  splendor. 

Amidst  venality  and  corruption,  Britain's  proud  meti-opolis, 
the  emporium  of  the  world,  the  largest,  richest,  and  freest 
city  in  Europe,  comported  herself  nobly,  notwithstanding  some 
aberrations  in  a  few  of  her  oflicers,  partly  owing  to  an  infection 
with  which  she  had  been  inoculated  by  Lord  Bute,  and  partly 


1 12  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

from  a  morbid  jealousy  engendered  among  themselves  ;  the 
symptoms  of  which  ran  highest  in  the  Rev.  John  Home. 
Had  he  and  his  quondam  friend  Wilkes  possessed  genuine 
moral  greatness,  he  would  have  followed  the  wise  counsel 
of  Junius  as  expressed  in  his  three  admirable  letters  already 
cited,  particularly  as  it  respected  the  preference  of  Alderman 
Sawbridge  for  the  next  Lord  Mayor.  Mr.  Home,  afterwards 
better  known  by  the  name  of  Tooke,  without  the  imputation 
or  suspicion  of  corruption,  lost  half  his  weight  by  turning 
a  deaf  ear  to  the  advice  of  Junius  given  through  the  medium 
of  Mr.  Wilkes. 

John  Home  Tooke  had  talents,  industry,  learning,  and 
ambition  ;  but  his  emulation,  taking  a  low  direction,  involved 
him  in  perplexities,  which,  for  that  time,  ruined  him  with  his 
party.  He  had  to  do  with  men  of  business,  who  judged  better 
but  wrote  worse  than  the  the  Parson.  The  ability  to  contrive, 
plan,  and  display  upon  paper,  is  a  different  matter  from  that 
adroitness  in  execution,  with  which  men  of  business  are  familiar. 
If  a  little  learning  be  a  dangerous  thing,  a  great  deal  of  it  is  a 
cumbersome  thing,  impeding  the  march;  and  the  possessor  of  it 
is  like  a  debilitated  modern  recruit  staggering  under  the  armour, 
accoutrements,  arms,  and  provision  of  an  old  Roman  soldier. 
Or,  to  use  a  better  figure,  John  Home  Tooke  was  at  that  time  a 
weed,  that  is,  a  fine  plant  out  of  his  proper  place  ;  hence  he  with- 
ered ;  and  when  afterwards  transplanted  into  his  proper  soil  at 
Purley,  he  grew  finely,  and  flourished  as  all  the  world  has  seen. 
We  shall  have  occasion  to  speak  of  this  fortunate  man  hereafter, 
and  shall  only  remark  now,  that  Junius  held  in  high  honor  the 
CITY  OF  London  ;  but  the  faction,  or  rather  sub-faction  in  it 
in  1771,  nearly  exhausted  his  stock  of  patience.  He  con- 
sidered the  reverend  and  learned  gentleman  just  mentioned  as 
the  soul  of  it ;  and  this  roused  his  indignation,  and  carried 
him  a  liltle  too  far  in  his  expression  of  it ;  for  he  imputed  to 
Home  a  corrupt  court  influence,  from  which  he  was  entirely 
free.  This  gentleman  was  constitutionally  honest  and  able ; 
but  not  in  his  right  situation.     How  few,  how  very  few  are  the 


HIS  WRITINGS  PATRIOTIC  AND  PURELY  ENGLISH.        113 

instances  among  ourselves,  where  clergymen  who  have  de- 
scended from  the  pulpit  into  the  dusty  arena  of  politics,  have 
not  been  there  bewildered,  blinded,  and  lost  ?  A  man  cannot 
serve  two  masters. 

Great  ability  is  manifested  in  Junius's  first  three  private  let- 
ters to  John  Wilkes,  Esq.  ;  and  in  his  fifty-ninth  letter  addressed 
to  the  printer  of  the  Public  Advertiser,  on  the  5th  of  October, 
1771.  I  consider  the  sentiments  contained  therein  as  the 
native,  heartfelt,  genuine,  unbought  language  of  English 
patriotism,  principles  which  no  man  can  counterfeit,  and  which 
Junius  found  it  so  hard  to  smother,  and  so  hazardous  to 
express.  In  his  public  letters,  he  inculcates  this  principle, — 
"  That  we  should  not  generally  reject  the  friendship  or  services 
of  any  man,  because  he  differs  from  us  in  a  jjarticula?-  opinion." 
He  adds, — "  I  care  not  with  what  principles  a  new-born 
patriot  is  animated,  if  the  measures  he  supports  are  beneficial 
to  the  community."  "  The  spirit  of  the  Americans  may  be 
an  useful  example  to  us.  Our  dogs  and  horses  are  only 
English  upon  Enghsh  ground  ;  but  patriotism,  it  seems,  may 
be  improved  by  transplanting."* 

"  To  complain  of  the  age  we  live  in,  to  murmur  at  the 
present  possessors  of  power,  to  lament  the  past,  to  conceive 
extravagant  hopes  of  the  future,  are  the  common  dispositions 
of  the  greatest  part  of  mankind,  the  necessary  effects  of  the 
ignorance  and  levity  of  the  vulgar  ;  but  nobody,  I  believe,  will 
consider  it  merely  the  language  of  spleen  or  disappointment,  if 
I  say  there  is  something  alarming  in  the  present  conjuncture. 
There  is  hardly  a  man  in  or  out  of  power  who  holds  any  other 
language.  That  government  is  at  once  dreaded  and  con- 
ienuied  ;  that  the  laws  are  despoiled  of  all  their  respecied 
and  salutary  terrors  ;  that  their  inaction  is  a  subject  of  ridicule, 
and  their  exertion  of  abhorrence  ;  that  rank,  and  oliicc,  and 
title,  and  all  the  solemn  plausibilities  of  the    world,  have  lost 

*  How  far  does  this  sentiment  differ  from  the  well-known  opinion 
of  the  Earl  of  Clmtham  respecting  the  Americans  ? 

15 


1 1  4  CONCERNING    JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

their  reverence  and  effect;  that  our  foreign  politics  are  as 
much  deranged  as  our  domestic  economy ;  that  our  depend- 
ences are  slackened  in  their  affection,  and  loosened  from  their 
obedience  ;  that  we  know  neither  how  to  yield  nor  how  to 
enforce  ;  that  hardly  any  thing  above  or  below,  abroad  or  at 
home,  is  sound  and  entire;  but  that  disconnection  and  confusion 
in  offices,  in  parties,  in  families,  in  parliament,  in  the  nation, 
prevail  beyond  the  disorders  of  any  former  times ;  these  are 
facts  universally  admitted  and  lamented."  Such  were  the 
sentiments  and  the  language  of  the  celebrated  Edmund  Burke 
in   1770.* 

It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  deplorable  condition  of 
things  was  in  the  reign  of  a  moral  king,  in  the  morning  of  life,  a 
man  of  business  more  than  of  pleasure,  addicted  to  no  vicious 
habits,  whose  domestic  virtues  and  rules  of  justice  reflected 
honor  upon  his  high  station.  What  shall  we  say  in  explanation 
of  that  state  of  perplexedness  which  embarrassed  the  government 
of  George  the  Third  ?  Juvenal  has  said  it  for  us, — "  JYuUum 
JVumen  abest,  si  sit  Prudentia."  In  the  early  part  of  his  Hfe, 
and  in  the  seclusion  of  his  palace,  there  was  no  Prudentia  or 
Minerva  to  listen  to ;  and  the  consequence  was,  it  first 
opened  the  mouth  of  JuNitJs,  then  raised  up  a  Burke,  and 
finally  engendered  a  Peter  Pindar,  and  every  one  of  them 
operated  more  or  less  powerfully  on  the  public  mind. 

It  was  at  this  gloomy  and  ill-boding  period  of  their  nation- 
al affairs  that  Junius  called,  in  the  tone  and  accents  of 
an  aged  and  weary  patriot,  on  Lord  Camden  saying — "  My 
Lord  !  I  turn  with  pleasure  from  that  barren  waste,  in  which 
no  salutary  plant  takes  root,  no  verdure  quickens,  to  a  char- 
acter fertile,  as  I  willingly  beheve,  in  every  great  and  good 
quahfication.  I  call  upon  you  in  the  name  of  the  Enghsh 
nation,  to  stand  forth  in  the  defence  of  the  laws  of  your 
country,  and  to  exert,  in  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice,  those 
great  abilities,  with  which  you  are  entrusted  for  the  benefit  of 
mankind." 

*  Thouffhta  on  the  Cause  of  the  Present  Discontents. 


MR.  BURKE'S  OPINION  OF  HIM.  115 

The  task  assigned  to  Lord  Camden  by  Junius  was  against 
Lord  Chief  Justice  Mansfield  ;  but  Camden  recoiled  probably 
in  despair  from  an  undertaking  in  which  a  Junius  had  failod. 
We  would  here  remark,  in  passing,  that  Lord  Camden  was  the 
most  intimate  political  and  private  friend  of  Lord  Chatham, 
and  executor  of  his  last  will. 

Is  it  not  prominently  remarkable  that  Junius,  who  called 
on  John  Wilkes  to  aid  hira  in  the  great  cause  of  the  people, 
never  once  calls  upon  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  that  steady  and 
consistent  whig,  that  stern  defender  of  constitutional  principles, 
that  renowned  and  incorruptible  statesman,  and  most  powerful 
orator,  to  lend  a  helping  hand  to  save  the  ship  of  state  in  her 
sad  plight  and  dangerous  situation  .''  Is  it  not  almost^  as  sur- 
prising that  the  great  reformer  never  once  names  the  Earl  of 
Temple,  Chatham's  brother-in-law  and  confidential  friend,  a 
whig  of  the  first  stamp,  the  heroic  combatant  of  "  general 
IV ar rants,''''  without  whose  exertions,  and  pecuniary  aid,  John 
Wilkes  might  have  sunk  into  obscurity  ?  And  is  it  not 
somewhat  strange  that  Lord  Chatham,  copious  as  the  matter 
of  his  speeches  is,  never  once  utters  the  name  of  Junius, 
even  when  defending  his  printer  Woodfall.''-  Neither  Mr. 
Burke  nor  Lord  North  was  so  fastidious.  The  first  spoke 
of  him  in  the  House  of  Commons  thus — "  How  comes  this 
Junius  to  have  broke  through  the  cobwebs  of  the  law,  and  to 
range  uncontrolled,  unpunished  through  the  land  ?  The  myr- 
midons of  the  court  have  been  long,  and  are  still,  pursuing  him 
in  vain.  Tlicy  will  not  spend. their  time  upon  me,  or  you,  or 
you,  [nodding  to  several.]  No  !  they  disdain  such  vermin, 
when  the  mighty  boar  of  the  forest,  that  has  broke  througli  all 
their  toils,  is  before  them.  But  what  will  all  their  efforts 
avail  ?  No  sooner  has  he  wounded  one,  than  he  lays  down 
another  dead  at  his  feet.  For  my  part,  when  I  saw  his  attack 
upon  the  King,  I  own  my  blood  ran  cold.  I  thought  he  had 
ventured  too  far,  and  there  was  an  end  of  his  triumphs.  Not 
that  he  had  not  asserted  many  truths  by  which  a  wise  prince 
might  profit.     Tt  was  the  rancor  and  the  venom  with  which   I 


UG  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

was  struck.  In  these  respects  the  JYorih  Briton  is  as  much 
inferior  to  him,  as  in  strength,  wit,  and  judgment.  But  while 
I  expected  in  his  daring  flight  his  final  ruin  and  fall,  behold 
him  rising  still  higher,  and  coming  down  souse  upon  both 
Houses  of  Parliament.  Yes  !  he  did  make  you  his  quarry,''^ 
and  you  still  bleed  from  the  wounds  of  his  talons.  Nor  has 
he  dreaded  the  terrors  of  your  brow,  Sir.f  He  has  attacked 
even  you  ;  he  has,  and  I  believe  you  have  no  reason  to  tri- 
umph in  the  encounter.  In  short,  after  carrying  our  royal 
eagle  in  his  pounces,  and  dashing  him  against  a  rock, J  he  has 
laid  you  prostrate.  Kings,  Lords,  and  Commons  are  but  the 
sport  of  his  fury. 

"  Were  he  a  member  of  this  House,  what  might  not  be 
expected  from  his  knowledge,  his  firmness,  and  integrity  ? 
He  would  be  easily  known  by  his  contempt  of  all  danger,  by 
his  penetration,  by  his  vigor.  Nothing  would  escape  his  vigi- 
lance and  activity.  Bad  ministers  could  conceal  nothing  from 
his  sagacity  ;  nor  could  promises,  nor  threats  induce  him  to 
conceal  any  thing  from  the  public." 

The  staid  and  even-tempered  Lord  North  was  not  too 
fastidious  to  mention  the  terrific  boar  of  the  woods.  He 
said  of  him,  "  When  factious  and  discontented  men  have 
brought  things  to  this  pass,  why  should  we  be  surprised  at  the 
difficulty  of  bringing  Hbellers  to  justice  ?  Why  should  we 
wonder  that  the  great  hoar  of  the  wood,  this  mighty  Junius 
has  broke  through  the  toils,  and  foiled  the  hunters  ?     Though 

*  Quan-y.  Game  flown  at  by  a  hawk  ;  hence  the  phrase — he  made 
game  of  him.  The  word  is  unknown  among  the  people  of  America, 
where  the  royal  sport  of  falconry  is  not  yet  introduced. 

t  Sir  Fletcher  Norton,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  had 
remarkably  large  eyebrows  jutting  over  his  optics  like  a  pent-house. 
This  is  a  fair  specimen  of  Burke's  ordinary  oratory,  and  of  Lord  North's 
also. 

I  We  know  of  no  European  bird  large  enough  and  strong  enough 
to  carry  away  a  great  man  and  dash  him  against  a  rock.  Must  not 
the  orator  have  meant  the  American  Condor  ?  the  largest  and  strong- 
est fowl  of  the  air  ;  its  wings  being  18  feet  from  tip  to  tip. 


LORD  NORTH'S  OPINION  OF  HIM.  117 

there  may  be,  at  present,  no  spear  that  will  reach  him,  yet  he 
may  be,  some  time  or  other,  caught.  At  any  rate,  he  will  be 
exhausted  with  fruitless  efforts  ;  those  tusks  which  he  has 
been  whetting,  to  wound  and  gnaw  the  constitution,  will  be 
worn  out.  Truth  will  at  last  prevail.  The  public  will  see 
and  feel  that  he  has  either  advanced  false  facts,  or  reasoned 
falsely  from  true  principles ;  and  that  he  has  owed  his  escape 
to  the  spirit  of  the  times,  not  to  the  justice  of  his  cause." 

These  are  timid  sentiments,  plaintive  and  childish  notes,  to 
come  from  the  hps  of  a  prime  minister  of  Old  England,  the 
man  who  had  the  ignorance  and  presumption  to  declare  out 
aloud,  that  he  would  bring  humiliated  America  to  his  feet ! 

From  the  speeches  just  cited  we  learn  Mr.  Burke's  opinion 
of  the  extraordinary  powers,  integrity,  patriotism,  and  intrepid- 
ity bordering  on  temerity,  of  Junius.  It  is  evident  that  he 
regarded  him,  though  invisible,  with  feelings  of  more  than  simple 
wonder, — with  astonishment  approximating  to  dread.  His 
opinion  corroborates  the  one  which  we  have  already  advanced, 
that  the  English  public  in  search  of  Junius  did  not  look  high 
enough.  It  is  apparent  that  Burke  looked  up  at  his  terrific 
eagle. 

As  to  "  My  Lord  North,"  so  everlastingly  famous  in  this 
country,  his  speech  betrays  marks  of  trembling  anxiety  in 
every  sentence.  He  moves  softly,  as  if  he  were  afraid  of 
waking  "  the  great  boar  of  the  woods,"  who  had  been 
whetting  his  terrible  tusks  before  he  went  to  sleep.*  It  is 
equally  evident  that  Lord  North  did  not  look  doivn  upon 
Junius.  It  is  difficult  to  preserve  that  gravity  which  becomes 
our  years,  whenever  we  think  of  certain  individuals  to  whom 
the  authorship  of  those  celebrated  Letters  has  been,  from 
time  to  time,  attributed. 

The  deep  solicitude  of  Junius  for  the  public  welfare  is 
strikingly  apparent  in  his  last  private  letter  to  Mr.  Woodfall, 


*  We  recommend  this  subject  to  some  of  tlic  history  painters  in 
this  new  country,  where  they  abound. 


118  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

in  which  he  said — "  If  I  saw  any  prospect  of  uniting  the  City 
once  more,  I  would  readily  continue  to  labor  in  the  vineyard. 
Whenever  Mr.  Wilkes  can  tell  me  that  such  an  union  is  in 
prospect,  he  shall  hear  from  me.  (^uod  si  quis  existimat  me 
aut  voluntate  esse  mutatd,  aut  debilitatd  vvrtute,  aut  animo 
fracto,  vehementer  errat.*     Farewell." 

Here  it  seems,  the  "  mighty  Junius,"  so  called  by  my  Lord 
JYorth,  hung  up  his  bow.  The  two  missile  darts  sent  after  this 
date,  seem  thrown  by  an  old  and  feeble  arm  and  with  a  careless 
aim  ;  like  his  Memoirs  of  Lord  Barrington,  every  way  un- 
worthy his  pen.  His  final  private  letter  to  Woodfall,  of  Janu- 
ary 19,  1773,  is  more  hke  himself;  he  says  in  it — "  I  have 
seen  the  signals  thrown  out  for  your  '  old  friend  and  corre- 
spondent.' Be  assured  that  I  have  good  reason  for  not 
complying  with  them.  In  the  present  state  of  things,  if  I  were 
to  write  again,  I  must  be  as  silly  as  any  of  the  horned  cattle 
that  run  mad  through  the  city,  or  as  any  of  your  wise  aldermen. 
I  meant  the  cause  and  the  public.  Both  are  given  up.  I  feel 
for  the  honor  of  this  country,  when  I  see  that  there  are  not  ten 
men  in  it  who  will  unite  and  stand  together  upon  any  one 
question.  But  it  is  all  alike,  vile  and  contemptible.  You 
have  never  flinched  that  I  know  of;  and  I  shall  always  rejoice 
to  hear  of  your  prosperity." 

Here  is  a  deliberate  and  solemn  leave-taking,  with  ample- 
reason  why  he  should  write  no  more  ;  and  this  determination  is 
handsomely  acquiesced  in  by  honest  Woodfall,  in  his  answer 
to  his  unknown  but  highly  venerated  correspondent.  Yet  what 
futile  arguments  have  been,  from  time  to  time,  obtruded  on  the 
public  as  to  the  cause  of  his  ceasing  from  his  labor.  The 
cessation  was  natural  and  for  sufficient  reason ;  why  then 
make  a  mystery  of  it,  seeing  his  retreat  was  masterly,  without 
loss,  and  facing  the  enemy  to  the  very  last  manoiuvre  ? 

*  But  if  any  one  believes  me  to  he  changed  in  tvill,  weakened  in 
integrity,  or  hroken  in  courage,  he  errs  grossly. 


CHAPTER  III. 


OF  THE  LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM. 

I  AM  aware  that  a  favorite  theory  has  a  tendency  to  bias  the 
judgment,  and  sweep  us  away,  like  a  strong. tide,  from  the 
anchorage  of  reason  into  the  open  sea  of  uncertainty ;  yet  if 
our  theory  be  the  fruit  of  long  reflection,  and  founded  upon  infer- 
ences drawn  from  independent  sources  of  evidence,  it  is  more 
satisfactory  than  an  assumed  hypothesis.  After  a  thoughtful  se- 
ries of  years  on  this  subject  of  our  inquiry,  and  reiterated  exam- 
ination of  facts  as  they  rose ;  and  after  disciplining  speculation  by 
internal  as  well  as  external  evidence,  I  had  concluded  and 
settled  down  many  years  since  in  the  opinion  that  William 
Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham,  ivas  the  author  of  the  celehraied 
Letters  under  the  signature  of  Junius.  Nay,  furthermore, 
that  no  other  man  had  feelings  just  like  them,  and  moreover 
that  no  other  man  was  capable  of  writing  them  5  and  as  length 
of  time,  has,  every  year,  added  strength  to  this  opinion,  I  am 
now  to  assign  my  reason  for  it.     But  this  will  lead  me  to  give 

^  Sketch  of  the  Life  and  Character  of  WILLIAM 
PITT,  EJRL  OF  CHATHAM. 

Benigno  Numine.* 

This  celebrated  man  was  born  in  London,  in  the  year 
1708.  He  was  esteemed  at  the  University  of  Oxford  a  good 
scholar,  a  keen  disputant,  and  by  some  a  poet.  But  his  ruling 
passion  was  the  tented  field,  which  he  would  have  indulged 
had  not  a  cruel  hereditary  gout,  that  seized  on  him  even  before 

*  By  the  favor  of  Providence.    Motto  of  tlie  noble  house  of  Chatham. 


120  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

he  left  Eton  school,  clipped  the  wings  of  his  martial  ambition, 
permitting  him,  however,  to  range  the  most  fertile  regions  of  an- 
cient and  modern  literature.  But  for  this  hopeless  disease,  the 
world  might  have  seen  him  a  Hannibal,  a  Marlborough,  or 
another  Napoleon,  and  Britain  deprived  of  the  honor  of  rearing 
the  second,  nay  the  first  orator  on  the  records  of  fame. 

Who  can  look  into  the  seeds  of  time  as  it  regards  the  destiny 
of  man  ?  Who  will  say  that  it  was  not  all  for  the  best,  that 
young  Pitt's  energetic  soul  should  be  confined  to  a  crazy  case, 
unsuited  to  its  warlike  propensities,  and  that  he,  who  other- 
wise would  have  blazed  among  the  greatest  of  conquerors,  was 
allowed  only  to  shine  the  first  of  orators?  The  great  and 
stern  commander  is,  however,  discernible  throughout  his 
eventful  hfe.  Quick-sighted,  prompt,  sagacious,  fearless, 
haughty,  and  persevering,  he  never  ceased  to  be  a  hero,  a 
Hercules,  a  demi-god  in  wielding  the  powers  of  a  great  nation, 
and  making  the  most  powerful  bend  to  his  sway. 

Among  his  most  intimate  companions  at  Eton  school  were 
Lord  George  Lyttleton,  Henry  Fox  (afterwards  Lord  Hol- 
land), Sir  Charles  Hanbury  Williams,  and  Henry  Fielding.* 
There  was  an  intimacy  between  Mr.  Pitt,  Mr.  George 
Grenville,  and  Lord  Lyttleton ;  for  several  years  they  always 
sat  together  in  the  House  of  Commons. 

The  gout  drove  young  Pitt  from  the  University  before  he 
could  take  a  degree  in  the  arts,  ajid  compelled  him  to  travel 
on  the  continent  in  quest  of  health  and  mental  improvement ; 
and  this  so  cultivated  his  mind,  says  Lord  Chesterfield,  that  he 
acquired  a  great  fund  of  premature  and  useful  knowledge. 
His  first  speech  in  Parliament  was  in  April,  1736.  On  his 
return  to  England,  having  kept  his  gout  at  bay  by  travelling, 
he  accepted  a  cornel's  commission  in  the  horse-guards ;  and 
at  the  age  of  twenty-seven  entered  Parliament,  where  he  shone 
a  prodigy  of  manly  eloquence,  and  virtuous  independence,  in 

*  Author  of  that  masterly  picture  of  the  English  character  and 
manners,  so  well  known  by  the  title  of  Tom  Jones. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.  121 

opposition  to  the  minister  Sir  Robert  WalpoJe ;  and  to  his 
sore  annoyance,  who,  it  is  said,  once  exclaimed — "  How  shall 
we  muzzle  this  terrible  cornet  of  horse  ? "  Sir  Robert  was 
thought  to  have  tainted  his  own  judgment,  and  betrayed  his 
want  of  sagacity,  by  depriving  the  young  aspirant  of  his  mili- 
tary commission.  Mr.  Pitt  proved  afterwards  that  he  knew 
the  science  of  political  resentment  much  better  than  the 
minister.  If  you  cannot  kill  a  roaring  lion  at  once,  beware 
how  you  wound  him.  Several  years  after,  this  wounded  and 
chafed  lion  "  lay  couching  head  on  ground  with  cat-like 
watch,"  and  sprang  upon  this  very  Sir  Robert  Walpole,  when 
magnified  in  the  eyes  of  a  giddy  world  by  an  earldom,  and 
dragged  him  forth  to  answer  for  his  deeds  of  corruption  before 
the  nation,  and  indeed  all  Europe  and  America ;  for  the  eyes 
of  all  the  world  had  long  been  turned  on  that  shrewd  minister 
of  two  Hanoverian  kings  of  England,  George  the  First,  and 
Second. 

Mr.  Pitt's  gouty  malady  was  only  arrested  for  a  time  by  his 
travels,  but  not  subdued  ;  it  recurred  on  his  return  home  ;  and 
so  entirely  checked  his  martial  ardor  as  to  change  its  current 
from  the  camp  to  the  senate.  It  appears  that  all  his  early 
exertions  bore  the  stamp  of  a  superior  genius.  Nor  was  this 
all  His  industry  and  application  were  commensurate  with 
his  extraordinary  powers  of  mind  ;  and  he  so  sedulously  cul- 
tivated a  rare  assemblage  of  talents,  that  he  was  able  to  utter 
whatever  his  great  soul  conceived,  better  than  any  other  man 
that  ever  spoke  the  English  language,  or  perhaps  any  other. 
Before  he  was  six  and  thirty  years  of  age,  his  eloquence 
foretold  his  future  fiune. 

When  Sir  Robert  Walpole  found  that  he  could  neither 
bribe  nor  otherwise  "  muzzle  the  terrible  cornet  of  horse,"  he 
directed  his  hirelings  and  dependants  to  browbeat  the  young 
Demosthenes.  He  doubtless  remembered  the  thundering 
orator  of  whom  Philip  stood  more  in  fear  than  of  all  the  rest  of 
Greece.  But  they  met  their  match,  and  more  than  their 
16 


122  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

match,  in  the  undaunted  courage  and  superior  force  and  skill  of 
"  the  terrible  cornet  of  horse." 

In  the  year  1740,  Mr.  Walpole,  brother  to  the  minister, 
thought  fit  to  reply  to  one  of  Mr.  Pitt's  speeches,  by  saying — 
"  Formidable  sounds  and  furious  declamation,  confident  asser- 
tions and  lofty  periods,  may  affect  the  young  and  inexperienced  ; 
and  perhaps  the  honorable  gentleman  may  have  contracted 
his  habits  of  oratory  by  conversing  more  with  those  of  his  own 
age,  than  with  such  as  have  had  more  opportunities  of  acquir- 
ing knowledge,  and  more  successful  methods  of  communicating 
their  sentiments."  And  he  made  use  of  some  expressions, 
such  as  "  vehemence  of  gesture,"  "  theatrical  emotion,"  &c. 
applying  them  to  Mr.  Pitt's  manner  of  speaking.  When  Mr. 
Walpole  sat  down,  young  Pitt  rose  slowly  up  and  said, — "  The 
atrocious  crime  of  being  a  young  man,  which  the  honorable 
gentleman  has,  with  such  spirit  and  decency,  charged  upon 
me,  I  shall  neither  attempt  to  palliate  nor  deny  ;  but  content 
myself  with  wishing  that  I  may  be  one  of  those  whose  follies 
may  cease  with  their  youth,  and  not  of  that  number  who  are 
ignorant  in  spite  of  experience. 

"  Whether  youth  could  be  imputed  to  any  man  as  a  re- 
proach, I  will  not  assume  the  province  of  determining.  Hut 
surely  age  may  become  justly  contemptible,  if  the  opportuni- 
ties which  it  brings  have  passed  away  without  improvement, 
and  vice  appears  to  prevail  when  the  passions  have  subsided. 
The  wretch  who,  after  having  seen  the  consequences  of  a 
thousand  errors,  continues  still  to  blunder,  and  whose  age  has 
only  added  obstinacy  to  stupidity,  is  surely  the  object  either  of 
abhorrence  or  contempt,  and  deserves  not  that  his  grey  hairs 
should  secure  him  from  insults.  Much  more  is  he  to  be 
abhorred,  who,  as  he  advances  in  age,  has  receded  from  virtue, 
and  becomes  more  wicked  with  less  temptation  ;  who  prostitutes 
himself  for  money  which  he  cannot  enjoy,  and  spends  the 
remains  of  his  life  in  the  ruin  of  his  country. 

"  But  youth  is  not  my  only  crime  ;  I  have  been  accused  of 
acting   a  theatrical  part ;  a  theatrical  part  may  either  imply 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.  123 

some  peculiarities  of  gesture,  or  a  dissimulation  of  my  real 
sentiments,  and  an  adoption  of  the  opinions  and  language  of 
another.  In  the  first  sense  the  charge  is  too  trifling  to 
be  confuted,  and  deserves  only  to  be  mentioned  that  it  may 
be  despised.  I  am  at  liberty,  like  every  other  man,  to  use 
my  own  language  ;  and  though  I  may  perhaps  have  some 
ambition,  yet,  to  please  this  gentleman,  I  shall  not  lay  my- 
self under  any  restraint,  nor  very  solicitously  copy  his  dic- 
tion or  his  mien,  however  matured  by  age  or  modelled  by 
experience.  If  any  man  shall,  by  charging  me  with  theat- 
rical behaviour,  imply  that  I  utter  any  sentiments  but  my 
own,  I  shall  treat  him  as  a  calumniator,  nor  shall  any  pro- 
tection shelter  him  from  the  treatment  he  deserves.  I  shall, 
on  such  an  occasion,  without  scruple,  trample  upon  all  those 
forms,  in  which  wealth  and  pride  always  entrench  themselves  ; 
nor  shall  any  thing  but  age  restrain  my  resentment ;  age  which 
always  brings  one  privilege,  that  of  being  insolent  and  supercili- 
ous without  punishment. 

"  But  with  regard  to  those  whom  I  have  offended,  I  am  of 
opinion,  that  if  I  had  acted  a  borrowed  part,  I  should  have 
avoided  their  censure  ;  the  heat  that  offended  them  is  the  ardor 
of  conviction,  and  that  zeal  for  the  service  of  my  country 
which  neither  hope  nor  fear  shall  influence  me  to  suppress. 
I  will  not  sit  unconcerned  while  my  liberty  is  invaded,  nor  look 
in  silence  upon  public  robbery." 

See  here  the  seed  of  an  extraordinary  indigenous  plant ;  the 
germ  of  a  rare  and  splendid  flower  and  uncommon  fruit.  Nay, 
who  does  not  see  in  this  early  specimen  of  invective  the  future 
full-blown  orator  ;  die  matter,  the  nature,  the  stern  manner,  and 
inflexible  temper  of  a  minister,  who,  while  he  reasoned  down 
opposition,  carried  his  victories  with  the  rapidity  of  a  mountain 
torrent ;  and,  when  political  principle  and  personal  resentment 
combined,  could  treat  an  aged  member,  brother  of  the  prime  min- 
ister, like  a  miscreant.  Nor  did  the  contest  end  there  ;  but 
while  he  proceeded  in  a  more  pointed  and  still  severer  strain,  bor- 
dering on  abuse,  a  member  alike  aged  with  Mr.  Walpolc,  called 


124  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

the  young  orator  to  order,  Pitt  turning  upon  him,  exclaimed — 
"  If  this  lie  to  preserve  order,  there  is  no  danger  from  the  most 
licentious  tongue  ;  for  what  calumny  can  be  more  atrocious,  or 
what  reproach  more  severe  than  that  of  speaking  without  any 
regard  to  truth  ?  Order  may  sometimes  be  broken  by  passion 
or  inadvertency,  but  will  hardly  be  re-established  by  a  monitor 
like  this,  who  cannot  govern  his  own  passion  whilst  he  is 
restraining  the  impetuosity  of  others  ?"  * 

These  exaniples  show  us  the  man  at  an  early  stage  of  his 
career  ;  a  young  Hercules,  impetuous,  overbearing,  haughty, 
and  fearless,  mighty  in  eloquence,  and  when  provoked  prone 
to  insolence,  without  regarding  station,  wealth,  or  age;  in  a 
word,  a  very  Junius.  It  seems  from  every  account,  written 
and  traditional,  that  the  personal  appearance  of  Mr.  Pitt  was 
the  happiest  possible  for  a  great  orator.  His  countenance, 
his  eye,  his  voice,  his  collected  and  fearless  manner  partaking 
of  sternness  and  savouring  of  defiance,  quahfied,  however,  by 
a  peculiarly  fascinating  demeanour  of  good  breeding,  and 
ever  corresponding  exactly  with  his  subject,  whether  persua- 
sive, indignant,  objurgatory,  or  dictatorial,  all  constituted 
him  the  very  soul  and  substance  of  eloquence.  His  occasional 
sickliness,  his  constitutional  infirmity,  even  his  gout  aided  his 
oratory.  With  one  arm  in  a  sling,  he  seemed,  while  speaking, 
as  if  able  to  direct  Great  Britain,  and  awe  Europe  with  one 
hand.  He  very  early  acquired  a  certain  inimitable  manner  of 
expressing  strongly  his  indignation,  or  his  contempt ;  so  that 
he  became  often  an  object  rather  of  dread  than  affection  to  his 
contemporary  legislators.  He  seldom  restrained  this  propensity 
towards  men  of  the  Walpolean  school,  and  too  often,  perhaps, 
gave  way  to  a  vituperative  style,  and  a  torrent  of  invective 
resembling  rancor  ;  particularly  towards  JMurray,  Lord  Mans- 
field. These  endowments,  acquirements,  and  talents  gave 
him  ascendency  in  Parliament  before  he  was  forty  years  of 
age,  which  grew  into  authority,  and  enabled  him  before  he  was 


*  See  Almon's  Anecdotes  of  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.    125 

fifty  to  bias  greatly  and,  at  times,  to  sway  both  King  and  Parlia- 
ment. Nor  is  this  to  be  much  wondered  at,  when  we  consider 
the  education  and  mere  military  character  of  George  the 
Second,  who,  though  quick  and  passionate,  was  placable  and 
manageable.  Mr.  Pitt  with  a  steady  temper,  strong  will, 
sound  judgment,  and  courage  of  every  kind  that  never  faltered, 
set  all  in  motion,  and  could  regulate  the  machine  of  his 
own  making  with  the  unerring  power  of  a  creative  and  con- 
trolling mind  ;  and,  whenever  occasion  required,  adorned  all 
his  movements  with  the  most  polished  manners,  and  that 
without  confusion  or  hurry  ;  for  cool  judgment  was  very  often 
made  to  wait  upon  the  promptness  of  his  energetic  mind. 

However,  Mr.  Pitt's  character  was  so  purely  English  that 
he  could  not  give  in  to  all  the  Hanoverian  politics  of  his 
sovereign.  He  thwarted  his  wishes  in  Parliament,  derided 
his  electoral  troops,  opposed  his  system  of  German  politics 
generally,  and  was  particularly  active  and  successful  in  per- 
suading Parliament  to  send  home  the  Hanoverian  and  Hessian 
troops  brought  into  the  island  of  Great  Britain  to  help  the 
natives  quell  the  Scotch  rebellion  in  the  year  1745.  Pitt's 
opposition  to  the  aged  monarch's  long-fostered  partiality  to 
Hanover,  and  to  Germany  generally,  exasperated  dislike  to 
hatred,  so  that  he  could  not  hear  Mr.  Pitt  named  without 
visible  emotion.  Yet  he  continued  to  declare  in  Parhament 
manfully  and  steadily  that  that  state  was  alone  worthy  of 
being  denominated  a  sovereign  and  independent  state,  which 
relies  upon  its  oivn  strength,  without  having  recourse  to  troops 
of  another  nation  to  preserve  its  existence.  He  therefore 
denounced,  in  his  usual  strong  tone  and  powerful  manner,  the 
pityful  policy  of  introducing  foreign  troops  whether  Russian 
or  German. 

In  opposing  the  views  of  George  the  Second,  Mr.  Pitt  could 
not  avoid  crossing  the  path  of  his  favorite  son  the  Duke  of 
Cumberland,  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  land  forces  of 
England.  Yet  the  noble-minded  Duke  was  constrained  to  say 
to  Mr.  Fox,  afterwards  Lord  Holland,  "  I  do  not  know  Mr. 


126  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

Pitt ;  but  by  what  you  tell  me  Pitt  appears  to  be  what  is 
scarce, — a  Man,  and  that  man  an  Englishman." 

Notwithstanding  his  av^ersion,  the  king  was  told  by  the  wise 
men  about  him  that  he  must  call  Mr.  Pitt  into  office,  that  his 
general  character  and  popularity  loudly  demanded  it.  And 
he  was  not  long  after  appointed  Paymaster  of  the  land  forces ; 
and  in  this  important,  and  till  that  time  very  lucrative  office,  he 
manifested  a  punctuality,  correctness,  and  disinterestedness 
rarely  found  in  the  annals  of  kingdoms.  He  would  receive  no 
more  pay  than  the  exact  legal  establishment ;  and  accordingly 
paid  a  subsidy  to  the  king  of  Sardinia  entire  without  the  usual 
deduction  of  a  certain  per-centage  as  a  perquisite.  This  es- 
tablished his  already  high  character  for  integrity  throughout 
Europe,  and  added  to  its  great  weight  in  England.  In  that 
country,  and  in  these  United  States,  popularity  is  a  mighty 
engine  that  generally  operates  the  public  benefit,  unless  it 
should  be,  like  that  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole's,  the  fruit  of 
bribery,  or  when  acquired  by  an  ambitious  military  chieftain. 

What  added  to  the  perplexity  of  those  who  hyed  by  princes' 
favor  was  the  advanced  age  of  the  monarch,  whilst  his  son 
Frederic,  Prince  of  Wales,  was  in  the  vigor  of  life  and  health. 
Whether  to  sit  most  respectfully  under  the  solemn  gloom  of 
the  setting  sun,  or,  in  the  dubious  twilight,  hail  its  rising  beams, 
puzzled  the  will,  and  sadly  embarrassed  ambitious  aspirants 
and  professed  courtiers ;  even  Mr.  Doddington  knew  not,  at 
times,  which  way  to  bow.  However  the  court  of  the  heir- 
apparent  at  Leicester-House  was  more  crowded  than  that  of 
St.  James.  Considering  the  advanced  age  of  the  father  and 
the  middle  age  of  the  son,  it  is  no  great  wonder  that  the  Heli- 
olaters  outnumbered  the  Threnodians.  Lord  Temple  and 
Mr.  Pitt  appeared  occasionally  at  both  levees. 

But  the  face  of  affairs  was  suddenly  changed  by  the  very 
unexpected  death  of  the  Prince  of  TValds.  An  event  so  un- 
looked-for filled  the  opposition  with  the  utmost  consternation 
and  confusion  ;  for  the  adherents  of  his  late  Royal  Highness  had 
planned    a   systematic   opposition   to   the  government  of  his 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     127 

father,  which  was  to  operate  under  the  direction  of  that  hopeful 
son,  and  his  more  able  princess.  Inferior  as  prince  Frederic 
undoubtedly  was  in  point  of  intellect,  he  never  amassed 
private  treasure,  nor  adopted  any  sinister  advice  with  a  view  to 
collect  wealth.*  He  perhaps  never  looked  so  far  forward.  We 
are  unable  to  pronounce  the  character  of  Prince  Frederic. 
We  can  only  infer  that  he  was  neither  wise  nor  prudent ;  for 
he  would  discuss  freely  the  future  system  of  his  government, 
when  his  father's  death  should  give  him  the  crown.  How 
unlike  the  character  of  Britain's  present  monarch  George  the 
Fourth  !  t  * 

The  spouse  of  Prince  Frederic,  and  mother  of  King  George 
the  Third,  was  a  German  Princess  ;  and  to  her  the  whigs 
attributed  some  of  the  most  glaring  instances  of  their  national 
disgrace.  The  private  history  of  such  exclusive  people  is  not 
to  be  depended  on  at  this  distance.  Junius  abhorred  her  ; 
and  Earl  Waldegrave,  governor  of  Prince  George,  afterwards 
George  the  Third,  despised  her. J  But  who  of  us  can  by 
sifting  find  out  the  truth  in  characters  so  out  of  the  way  of 
common  life.  Through  our  camera  however  it  does  seem  to 
us  strange,  that  a  renowned  nation,  slow  in  judgment,  rich  in 
wisdom,  glorious  in  her  constitution  of  government,  haughty 
and  insulated,  and  most  mighty  in  the  richness  of  her  com- 
merce, should,  in  her  customs,  stoop  so  low,  as  to  take  from 
among  the  poor  and  petty  powers  of  the  Continent,  wives  for 
their  kings  and  princes,  after  suffering  as  they  have,  from  the 
conduct  of  most  of  them. 

*  It  may  be  superfluous,  and  it  may  not,  to  say  to  the  American 
reader,  that  Prince  Frederic  was  the  eldest  son  of'George  the  Second. 
His  only  brother  was  William,  Duke  of  Cumberland ;  a  man  of  consid- 
erable talents,  and  the  favorite  of  his  father,  as  well  as  of  all  the 
nation  except  the  Scotch. 

t  Our  journals  have  just  announced  the  death  of  this  monarch  :  and 
the  emblerhs  of  our  own  sovereignty  have  expressed  our  regret  by  their 
position  half-mast  high  on  the  shipping*  in  our  harbours. 

X  See  Waldegrave's  Memoirs. 


128  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

Is  there  sufficient  reason  for  this  strange  custom  ?  Is  there 
sound  policy  in  the  usage  ?  Beside,  what  a  dark  shade  does 
this  practice  cast  upon  the  ladies  of  the  first  rank  in  England  ! 
It  has  been  suggested  that  it  was  to  secure  and  put  beyond 
hazard  Britain's  Protestant  religion.  Indeed  !  On  what  sort 
of  foundation  is  that  church  built  which  needs  such  slender 
props  ?  On  what  can  the  church  itself  be  erected,  which  is 
endangered  by  giving  to  the  sovereigns  of  England,  queens  of 
British  birth  and  education  ?  Do  they  in  the  land  of  our 
forefathers  think,  that  foreigners  would  feel  a  deeper  interest 
in  guarding  the  throne,  and  maintaining  the  rights  of  English- 
men, than  natives  themselves?  Is  it  likely  they  would  be  more 
disposed  to  inculcate  on  the  minds  of  their  offspring  the 
peculiar  principles  of  the  constitution ;  or  that  they  would  at 
any  time  support  it  with  more  steady  bravery  than  native 
Britons  ?  At  this  distance  from  that  noble  political  planet  these 
things  appear  marvellous  in  our  eyes. 

Mr.  Pitt  was  no  friend  to  these  foreign  connexions.  He 
opposed  with  all  his  might  certain  subsidiary  treaties  with 
Russia,  and  with  certain  German  princes,  for  a  supply  of 
troops  for  the  defence  of  Hanover.  But  Mr.  Pitt  as  Paymas- 
ter, and  Mr.  Legge  as  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  united  in 
refusing  payment  until  these  treaties  made  by  the  King  had 
been  approved  by  Parliament.  And  for  their  non-compliance 
both  were  dismissed  from  office  ;  and  a  new  administration 
was  formed,  who  obtained  from  Parliament  a  vote  for  £100,000 
for  Russia,  and  £54,000  for  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse.*  But 
this  administration,  got  up  chiefly  by  his  Royal  Highness  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland,  was  to  the  utmost  degree  unpopular. 

In  the  year  1756  France  began  to  march  large  bodies  of 
troops  towards  the  sea-coast,  and  threatened  an  invasion  of 
England,  than  which  nothing  strikes  more  terror  into  those 
islanders,  from  the  cabinet  to  the  watermen  upon  the  Thames. 
Soon  after  the  important  island  of  Minorca  was  taken  by  the 

*  See  chap.  xii.  of  Almon's  Anecdotes  of  Lord  Chatham. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     129 

French,  and  Admiral  Byng,  who  had  nothing  to  do  with  it, 
shot  for  it.  A  general  dismay  settled  upon  England,  and 
foreign  troops  were  again  called  in,  which  increased  the 
public  discontent ;  for  many  weak  people  thought  the  kingdom 
was  given  up  to  Hessians  and  Hanoverians.  The  storm  of 
public  indignation  increasing,  the  frightened  ministry  hastened 
to  give  in  their  resignations.  In  this  situation  of  things  the 
people  turned  their  eyes  on  William  Pitt,  as  their  sure 
^gis  of  protection,  and  it  did  their  judgment  credit.  Amid 
their  general  depravity,  inertness,  frivolity,  cowardice,  and 
want  of  confidence  in  their  government,  one  man  appeared  to 
stand  their  rock  of  defence,  and  that  man  was  an  invalid  upon 
crutches, — such  is  the  power  of  mind  over  matter. 

Mr.  Phi,  a  consummate  orator,  and  all-powerful  in  Parlia- 
ment, knew  how  to  speak  better  than  any  other  man,  and 
he  knew  how  to  be  silent,  which  saving-knowledge  Edmund 
Burke  never  attained.  In  the  session  of  Parliament  which 
began  on  the  11th  of  January  1753,  and  ended  7th  June  in  the 
same  year,  Mr.  Pitt  was  silent.  In  that  which  commenced  on 
15th  of  November,  1753,  and  terminated  in  April,  1754,  he 
took  no  part  in  the  debates.  In  the  same  year  the  Parliament 
was  dissolved.  The  new  Parliament  met  in  November,  in 
which  session  Mr.  Pitt  moved  for  leave  to  bring  in  a  bill  for 
the  relief  of  certain  grievances  endured  by  the  out-pensioners 
of  Chelsea  Hospital,  whom  he  represented  as  cruelly  oppressed 
by  an  improper  mode  of  paying  their  pensions.  The  poor, 
disabled  veterans  who  were  entitled  to  that  charity  were,  he 
said,  oppressed  by  a  number  of  wretches  who  supplied  them 
with  money  in  advance,  they  paying  the  most  exorbitant 
interest  to  certain  usurers,  who  supplied  them  with  small  sums 
to  relieve  their  pressing  needs.  The  bill  was  brought  in  by  an 
unanimous  vote,  and  the  aged  and  wounded  soldiers  were 
delivered  from  a  flock  of  harpies.  This  exertion  shows  the 
true  character  of  the  man,  and  the  fact  ought  to  be  added 
17 


130  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

to  his  everlasting  monument,  if  its  weight  of  laurels  will  allow 
room  for  it.* 

Wide-spreading  and  solid  as  was  the  reputation  of  William 
Pitt,  and  great  as  was  his  influence,  he  increased  both  by  marry- 
ing a  noble  lady,  sister  of  Richard  Earl  Temple,  and  of  the 
Right  Hon.  George  Grenville,  well  remembered  in  this  country 
as  the  putative  father  of  the  obnoxious  stamp-act.  This  lady 
resembled  her  husband  in  the  towering  faculties  of  her  mind, 
and  in  the  assiduous  cultivation  of  them,  and  was  among 
women  what  her  husband  was  among  men.  We  desire  the 
reader  to  bear  in  mind  this  happy  circumstance  in  the  life  of 
Lord  Chatham. 

But  to  return  to  the  perplexed  monarch,  who  was  left  too 
much  alone  with  very  few  friends  and  disinterested  advisers. 
Among  these  the  Earl  of  Waldegrave  appears  to  have  been  the 
most  estimable  as  a  personal  friend  ;  for,  after  ceasing  to  be 
the  governor  of  George  Prince  of  Wales,f  he  withheld  himself 
from  public  office  though  urged  to  it  by  the  King.  The  Duke 
of  Newcastle,  a  generous  nobleman  of  a  singular  character, 
always  hovered  about  the  throne,  ready  to  do  any  thing  and 
every  thing  ;  and  him  the  king  authorized  to  apply  to  Mr.  Pht, 
with  assurances  that  he  was  perfectly  reconciled  to  taking  him 
into  his  service.  But  the  haughty  commoner  answered  his 
application  somewhat  abruptly,  that  he  would  accept  of  no 
situation  whatever  under  his  Grace  of  Newcastle.  This  was 
on  the  20th  of  October,  1756.  The  Duke  of  Devonshire  was 
commissioned  by  the  King  to  wait  on  Mr.  Pitt,  who  was  at 
Hayes,  his  country-seat  in  Kent,  and  offer  a  carte-blanche,  except 
as  to  Mr.  Henry  Fox,  whom  the  King  wished  to  keep  in  his  ser- 
vice ;  but  Pitt  gave  a  positive  refusal  to  the  royal  request.  J  Upon 

*  See  Junius's  celebrated  eulogy  on  Lord  Chatham,  Letter  LV. 

f  Afterwards  King  George  the  Third. 

\  Mr.  Pitt's  stubborn  rejection  of  Mr.  Fox  is  a  mystery  to  many, 
they  having  been  school-fellows,  and  a  friendship  subsisting  between 
them  all  their  lives.  We  shall  explain  this  hereafter,  when  speaking 
of  the  partiality  of  Junius  for  Lord  Holland. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     131 

this  Mr.  Fox  immediately  resigned  his  secretaryship.  His 
resignation  produced  confusion,  and  the  Duke  of  Newcastle 
and  the  rest  of  his  Majesty's  servants  resigned  also.  This 
distressed  the  King  extremely,  and  left  him  in  a  situation  not 
to  be  envied.  He  complained  bitterly  to  those  about  him 
of  their   ill  treatment. 

"  At  the  earnest  request  of  the  King,  the  Duke  of  Devonshire 
took  the  Duke  of  JVeivcasth^s  place  at  the  treasury,  and  again 
waited  on  Mr.  Pitt  at  Hayes,  with  a  message  from  his  Majesty, 
requesting  to  know  the  terms  upon  which  he  would  come 
into  office.  Mr.  Pitt  gave  his  arrangement.  Himself  to  be 
Secretary  of  State  ;  Lord  Temple,  First  Lord  of  the  Ad- 
miralty ;  Mr.  Legge,  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer ;  the  Great 
Seal  to  be  in  commission  ;  George  Grenville,  Treasurer  of  the 
Navy;  and  James  Grenville,  a  Lord  of  the  Treasury."* 

At  Mr.  Pht's  desire,  Charles  Pratt  Esq.,  afterwards  Lord 
Camden,  was  made  Attorney  General. 

What  an  idea  does  this  convey  of  the  mighty  power  and 
the  virtuous  influence  of  William  Pitt.  His  vast  popularity 
was  a  different  thing  from  that  which  elevated  John  Wilkes, 
and  inflated  him  to  a  monstrous  size,  frightful  to  the  eye 
of  reason  and  good  order.  Pitt  had  built  for  himself  a  solid 
reputation  grounded  upon  virtue,  honor,  an  honest  patriotism, 
a  character  so  respectable  as  in  a  manner  to  compel  a  monarch 
who  hated  him,  to  solicit  him  repeatedly  to  become  his  prime 
minister.  With  this  great  weight  of  character,  and  with  a 
matchless  power  of  eloquence,  Mr.  Pitt  became  Prime  Minis- 
ter. In  other  words,  he  took  the  helm  of  a  crazy  ship  in  a 
tempestuous  season,  with  a  miserable  crew,  and  but  three  or 
four  good  officers ;  and  yet,  in  due  time,  no  ship  of  state,  since 
the  ark  of  Noah,  ever  sailed  the  ocean  so  gallantly. 

When  Pitt  came  into  office,  he  stipulated  certain  conditions 
which  were  very  extraordinary.  He  insisted  that  Lord  Anson 
should  be  excluded  from  the  cabinet ;  nor  was  that  all,  he  in- 


*  Almon'a  Anecdotes  of  Chatham. 


132  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

sisted  that  he  himself  should  have  the  correspondence  with  the 
officers  of  the  navy  instead  of  the  board  of  admiralty,  and  the 
King  consented  to  it.  Under  this  arrangement,  Mr.  Pitt 
wrote  the  instructions  to  the  Admirals  of  the  fleet,  and  to  the 
Commodores  and  Captains,  and  these  were  signed  by  at  least 
three  of  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty,  while  a  sheet  of  white 
paper  covered  the  writing,  so  that  they  were  kept  in  ignorance 
of  what  they  signed,  while  all  despatches  and  letters  came  to 
Mr-  Pitt,  who  was  Secretary  of  State,  and  at  the  same  time 
Prime  Minister.  Lord  Anson  retained  his  place  as  First 
Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  under  Pitt's  limitation,  and  Mr  Fox 
took  the  pay  office  ;  and  with  these  officers  Pitt  commenced 
his  glorious  administration  in  the  year  one  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  ffty-seven ;  the  brightest  period  of  English  history 
since  the  Revolution  of  1688. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM,  CONTINUED. 

Let  us  look  back  on  some  of  the  ground  we  have  run  too 
rapidly  over. 

George  the  Second  had  little  or  no  affection  for  his  eldest 
son,  and  it  would  seem  not  much  for  his  grandson,  who  was 
never  taught  to  respect  him.  Royal  families,  all  the  world 
over,  have  less  affection  for  each  other  than  those  of  untitled 
rank.  The  aged  monarch  had  been  deserted  by  his  ministers 
in  a  very  unfeeling  manner.  In  this  state  of  perplexity,  the 
venerable  Duke  of  Devonshire,  knowing  that  the  Sovereign 
needed  both  consolation  and  advice,  asked  an  audience  ;  in 
the  course  of  it,  he  entreated  the  King  to  recall  Mr.  Pitt  and 
place  him  at  the  head  of  the  administration,  as  the  only  man, 
who,  by  his  extraordinary  talents,  unbounded  popularity,  and 
integrity,  could  redeem  the  government  from  confusion.  It  is 
said  that  the  King  shed  tears  on  recounting  the  unfeeling 
treatment  of  his  late  ministers,  declared  himself  willing  to 
follow  the  advice  of  Devonshire,  and  therefore  requested  the 
Duke  to  make  application  to  Mr.  Pitt,  as  we  have  related.  In 
the  conference,  Pitt  said  to  his  Grace,  "  My  Lord!  I  am  sure 
I  can  save  this  country,  and  nobody  else  can.'^  This  would 
have  been  arrogance  from  the  lips  of  any  other  man.  But  he 
knew  the  state  of  the  country  better  than  any  one  else  ;  and  he 
knew  also  his  own  powers  and  means.  This  enabled  him  to 
say  to  the  King  on  his  first  private  audience,  "  Sire,  give  me 
your  confidence,  and  1  will  deserve  it.''''  What  can  convey  a 
better  idea  of  the  venerable  monarch  than  his  prompt  reply, — 
"  Deserve  my  confidence,  and  you  shall  have  it^     There  is  a 


134  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

degree  of  sublimity  in  the  sentiment  of  both.  "  George  the 
Second,  though  not  possessed  of  brilliant  talents,  yet,  to  a  strong 
firmness  of  mind,  he  added  a  long  experience  of  men  and 
public  affairs,  with  a  sufficient  share  of  penetration  to  distinguish, 
even  in  his  present  short  acquaintance  with  Mr.  Pitt,  that  he 
was  a  bold  and  intelligent  minister  ;  qualities  which  were  per- 
fectly agreeable  to  the  King,  because  the  want  of  personal 
courage  was  not  amongst  his  defects."  *  The  minister  per- 
ceived, from  time  to  time,  that  he  could  manage  his  master  to 
the  benefit  of  his  country ;  and  during  the  remainder  of  the 
King's  life  they  acted  together  in  harmony,  and  the  nation  saw 
and  rejoiced  at  the  union  and  cordiality  of  opinion  between  the 
Sovereign  and  his  popular  minister  upon  all  public  measures. 

Before  Pitt  assumed  the  administration  of  the  government, 
Britain  had  sustained  losses  and  incurred  disgraces  in  Europe, 
in  Asia,  and  America.  All  public  transactions  were  reduced 
to  party  feelings.  This  perplexed  and  discouraged  officers 
abroad,  who  knew  not  hov/  to  act,  and  they  became  of  course 
languid  and  dispirited  in  their  military  operations,  and  in  their 
civil  governments.  In  this  country,  the  French  were  en- 
croaching every  day  upon  us.  Their  soldiers  were  superior  to 
the  British  in  discipline,  and  they  had  better  officers,  and 
beside  that,  the  friendship  of  the  Indians.  The  defeat  of  the 
over  confident  General  Braddock,  and  the  shameful  inactivity 
and  incapacity  of  Lord  Loudon,  left  open  a  wide  avenue  to  the 
conquest  of  these  colonies. 

When  the  two  leaders  of  the  late  administration,  the  Duke 
of  Newcastle  and  Henry  Fox,  were  constrained  to  quit  their 
hold  on  the  government,  they  left  enough  of  the  leaven  of  the 
Leicester-House  faction  behind  to  disturb  and  thwart  the  new 
minister.  The  press  teemed  with  abuse  against  him ;  even 
with  sarcasms  on  his  bodily  infirmities.  If  the  old  court  at 
St.  James's  was  restored  from  its  gloom  by  the  presence  of 
Pitt,  the  new  one  at  Leicester-House  was  considered  by  some 

*  Alraon'B  Anecdotes. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.f  135 

no  better  than  an  impure  nest  in  which  was  hatched  a  brood  of 
evil  designs  against  English  and  American  liberty.  A  coterie 
assembled  there  unfriendly  to  the  old  monarch  and  his  minister. 
The  state  of  pubhc  manners  was  deplorable.  Heroic  virtue 
seemed  to  have  fled,  leaving  in  its  place  indolence,  a  sickliness 
of  mind,  a  lack  of  spirit,  a  love  of  money  with  their  miserable 
offspring,  a  habit  of  gaming  carried  on  with  a  view  to  indulge  in 
laziness,  finery,  and  effeminacy  ;  and  this  engendered  venality, 
or  an  utter  disregard  to  every  thing  but  self-interest.  This 
deterioration  of  mannners  and  principles  was  bred  and  nurtured 
in  that  hot-bed  of  corruption  formed  by  Sir  Robert  Walpole. 
It  appears  strange  that  a  hardy,  stubborn,  courageous  people, 
as  the  British  actually  are,  should  have  sunk  into  this  effeminacy, 
after  giving  such  evidence  of  bravery  and  patient  endurance  in 
the  times  of  Charles  the  First  and  of  Cromwell,  and  in  the 
reign  of  Queen  Anne.  But  so  it  really  was.  A  sunless  state 
of  peace  generated  foul  excrescences,  and  produced  a  morbid 
condition  in  the  body-pohtic.  The  people  of  England  were 
so  sunk  below  their  former  character  as  to  be  absolutely  dis- 
mayed at  the  incursion  of  a  few  half-naked,  ill-appointed 
Scotchmen  in  1745,  and  had  recourse  to  foreign  troops  for 
protection.  Pitt  derided  this  step  with  his  utmost  powers  of 
sarcasm  ;  and  proclaimed  that  state  alone  a  sovereign  state, 
"  qui  suis  stat  virihus,  non  alieno pendet  arbitrio." 

The  condition  of  things  was  at  that  time  deplorable.  A 
powerful  writer  of  that  day,*  says, — "  Let  us,  with  due  abase- 
ment of  heart,  acknowledge  that  the  love  of  country  is  no 
longer  felt,  and  that,  except  in  a  few  minds  of  uncommon 
greatness,  the  principle  of  public  spirit  exists  not.  That 
mighty  principle,  so  often  feigned,  so  seldom  possessed,  which  it 
requires  the  united  force  of  upright  manners,  generous  religion, 
and  unfeigned  honor  to  support.  So  infatuated  are  we  in  the 
contempt  of  this  powerful  principle,  that  we  deride  the  inhabi- 


*  Rev.  Dr.  Brown's  Estimate  of  the  Manners  and  Principles  of  the 
Times.    London,  1757.    (Seventh  Edition  in  1758.) 


1 36  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

tants  of  a  sister  kingdom  for  their  national  attachments  and 
regards." 

That  this  was  not  the  petulent  effusion  of  a  mere  closet 
philosopher,  an  opinionated  priest,  ignorant  of  the  world  and  of 
himself,  who  wantonly  libelled  his  contemporaries,  will  appear 
pretty  evident  "from  the  language  of  Mr.  Pitt  himself,  who^ 
about  the  same  time,  declared  in  Parliament  his  firm  belief  that 
there  was  an  aversion  in  the  navy  and  raihtary  commanders 
against  any  vigorous  exertion  whatever.  He  affirmed  that 
scarcely  a  man  could  be  found  with  whom  the  execution  of 
any  one  plan,  in  which  there  was  the  least  appearance  of  danger, 
could,  with  confidence,  be  trusted  ;  that  a  shameful  dislike  to 
the  service  every  where  prevailed  ;  and  that  the  contractors  for 
the  army  and  navy  cared  for  little  else  than  their  own  pecuniary 
advantage.  The  first  military  operations  on  the  coast  of 
France  after  Pitt  came  into  office  confirmed  these  assertions. 
The  reverend  author  just  cited,  when  commenting  on  this 
lamentable  state  of  things,  says, — "  JVecessity  and  necessity 
alone  must,  in  such  a  case,  be  the  parent  of  reformation* 
Whenever  this  compelling  power,  necessity,  shall  appear,  then, 
and  not  till  then,  may  we  hope  that  our  deliverance  is  at 
hand.  Effeminacy,  rapacity,  and  faction  will  then  be  ready  to 
resign  the  reigns  they  would  now  usurp  ;  one  common  danger 
will  create  one  common  interest ;  virtue  may  rise  on  the 
ruins  of  corruption  ;  and  a  despairing  nation  yet  be  saved  by 
the  wisdom,  the  integrity,  and  unshaken  courage  of  some  great 
Minister."  From  what  this  powerful  and  solemn  writer 
says  in  another  part  of  his  treatise,  we  have  reason  to  conclude 
that  he  had  Mr.  Pitt  particularly  and  individually  in  view. 

Our  great  statesman,  beside  his  rare  talents  and  tried  integri- 
ty, had  a  silent,  lofty  demeanour  which  sometimes  offended 
English  noblemen,  and  displeased  foreign  ambassadors.  It 
seems  not  to  have  been  the  ostentatious  arrogance  of  a  Cardi- 
nal Woolsey ;  but  the  laconic  language  and  behaviour  of  the 
man  of  multifarious  business,  partaking  more  of  the  military 
commander,  than  the  pride  of  high  political  station.  Yet  was  he 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EAUL  OF  CHATHAM.     IS'f 

remarkable  for  observing  every  rule  of  prescribed  etiquette,  and 
every  mark  of  deference  towards  George  the  Second.  We 
are  told  that  no  infirmity  occasioned  by  his  excruciating  gout, 
could  ever  prevail  on  him,  though  requested,  to  be  seated  in 
his  intercourse  with  the  King.  This  was  very  far  from  dis- 
pleasing a  royal  personage  educated  in  the  rigid  rules  of  the 
German  mihtary-school  etiquette. 

That  Mr.  Pitt  was  a  sort  of  terrific  object  to  the  King  and 
his  household  may  be  inferred  from  an  anecdote  related  by  the 
eccentric  Horace  Walpole,  afterwards  Lord  Orford ;  who 
says,  tliat  all  the  Hanoverian  party  had  strange  notions  of  the 
truculence  of  Pitt's  virtue,  and  gives  an  almost  ludicrous  story 
in  proof  of  it.  That  "  on  the  21st  of  October,  the  palace,  not 
at  all  the  scene  of  such  actions,  had  one  morning  its  solitude 
alarmed  by  an  early  visit  of  Mr.  Pitt.  The  pages  of  the  back- 
stairs were  seen  hurrying  about  and  crying — Mr.  Pitt,  Mr.  Pitt 
wants  Lady  Yarmouth,  [George  the  Second's  mistress.] 
The  great  stranger  told  her  that  he  made  her  this  abrupt 
morning  visit  to  explain  himself,  lest  it  should  be  thought  he 
had  not  been  sufficiently  explicit.  He  then  repeated  his 
exclusion  of  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  [in  his  stipulation  with 
the  Duke  of  Devonshire],  and  gave  some  civil  though  obscure 
hints, — as  if  in  losing  his  Grace,  Hanover  might  not  lose  all 
its  friends,"  he.  This  anecdote  is  pregnant  with  information. 
It  hangs  on  a  pivot.  It  related  to  the  memorable  negotiation 
with  Mr.  Pitt,  for  his  return  to  office,  when  he  pretended  that 
he  would  trust  the  tongue  of  none  else  but  the  bosom  friend  of 
the  monarch.  No  doubt  the  German  lady  was  charmed  with 
the  politeness  of  the  great  man,  and  with  his  confidence  in  her. 
From  that  moment  and  for  ever  must  she  have  changed  her 
opinion  of  the  terrific  Mr.  Pitt,  and  pronounced  him  the  mirror 
of  graciousness  and  civility.* 


*  Such  was  the  domestic  agitation,  when  the  great  and  terrible  man 
came  to  speak  with  the  conjidantc  of  Majesty,  that  all  was  in  a  flutter. 
It  was  like  the  sudden  appearance  of  a  hawk  in  a  barn-yard  ;  cocks 

18 


138  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

Pitth  ever  memorable  administration,  which  commenced  in 
the  summer  of  1757,  was  attended  with  the  greatest  advantage 
to  the  nation.  Disaster  had  followed  disaster  in  Germany. 
The  Duke  of  Cumberland  at  the  head  of  a  fine  army  had  been 
defeated  at  Hastenbeck,  and  finally  compelled  to  surrender  to 
the  French,  and  sign  the  convention  of  Closter-seven.*  En- 
gland's powerful  ally,  the  King  of  Prussia,  was  defeated,  and  his 
entire  destruction  appeared  inevitable.  As  to  this  country, 
nothing  was  done  or  even  attempted  by  Lord  Loudon  with  his 
large  land  force,  nor  by  Admiral  Holburne,  one  of  the  severest 
persecutors  of  Byng,  with  a  fleet  of  seventeen  ships,  while  the 
French  had  nineteen.  In  the  East  Indies  they  were  equally 
unsuccessful.  While  sad  reverses  were  experienced  abroad, 
the  internal  condition  of  England  was  no  better  ;  scarcity  was 
added  to  disorder.  What  a  task  had  Pitt  before  him  !  Yet 
he  ventured  to  say, — /  can  save  this  country.  But  it  was  not 
until  1758  that  the  operations  of  his  great  mind  were  manifest- 
ed to  the  world. 

With  extraordinary  powers,  Pitt  entered  the  perilous  road  of 
reformation,  amidst  an  host  of  domestic  enemies,  who  were 
looking  after  him  for  evil.  If  he  appeared  in  some  respects  a 
dictator,  he  mixed  a  judgment,  prudence,  and  wisdom  with  his 
vigor,  which  secured  to  him  the  unanimous  voice  of  Parliament, 
and  swelled  the  tide  of  his  popularity.  This,  with  an  uninter- 
rupted course  of  success  in  his  military  achievements,  awed  into 
silence  the  remnants  of  the  Leicester-House  faction,  and  Pitt 
was  at  one  and  the  same  time,  the  man  of  the  people,  and  the 
pride  of  the  crown.  He  was  an  illustrious  example  of  the 
maxim  that  knowledge  is  power. 

In  the  midst  of  frivolity,  indolence,  and  venality,  the  proud 
feelings  natural  to  the  British  nation  were  severely  stung  by  the 

and  cockerels,  old  hens,  chickens,  ducks  and  ducklings,  all  running  in 
a  fright. 

*  The  articles  of  this  convention  were  fulfilled  about  as  well  as  we 
fulfilled  the  convention  of  Saratoga,  when  General  Burgoyne  surren- 
dered his  army  to  the  Americans  in  October,  1777. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.  139 

keen  reproaches  of  the  minister  in  the  House  of  Commons  ;  nor 
were  they  less  mortified  at  the  cogent  remarks  of  certain  able 
and  zealous  moral  writers.  Political  pamphlets  and  moral 
tracts  were  rare  seventy  years  ago  compared  with  the  present 
day,  and  attracted  then  more  attention.  These  had  their  good 
effect ;  and  they,  with  Pitt's  eloquence,  awakened  the  army,  the 
navy,  and  the  representatives  of  the  people  in  Parliament  from 
their  dreams  of  indolence  ;  when  all,  operating  together,  roused 
the  slumbering  energies  of  a  luxurious  race,  who  had  been  not 
a  little  injured  by  the  frivolity  and  effeminacy  of  the  court  of 
Louis  the  Fifteenth  :  for  though  perpetual  enemies,  the  French 
gave  the  toyi  to  the  English  then,  as  the  English  give  it  now  to 
the  French  (1830).  An  ostentatious  nobility  and  the  gambling 
part  of  the  gentry  appeared  to  feel  the  reproaches  from  the 
senate,  the  press,  and  the  pulpit ;  while  those  in  the  lower 
ranks  were  touched  by  the  keen  satire  of  the  drama,  and  by 
the  moral  pencil  of  Hogarth  ;  and  others  were  awakened  to 
recollection  and  remorse  by  the  zeal  of  a  new  and  meritorious 
sect  denominated  Methodists,  under  their  two  celebrated  apostles 
Whitejield  and  Wesley.  The  London  community  started  back 
with  shame  and  affright  from  the  mirror  thus  held  up  to  them. 

In  this  state  of  morals,  commerce  lost,  in  some  measure,  its 
wonted  spring.  The  old  Hanoverian  King  was  but  little 
acquainted  with  that  vital  circulation  of  the  heart's  blood  of  old 
England,  while  his  minister,  Pitt,  knew  thoroughly  the  first, 
second,  and  third  concoction  of  it,  and  he  therefore  watched 
the  health  of  Britannia  with  the  anxious  solicitude  of  a  parent, 
and  the  skill  of  a  great  physician.  And  in  this  respect  our 
admiration  of  the  capacity,  ability,  and  industry  of  the  minister 
is  increased  at  every  view  of  his  wonderful  powers  of  intellect 
and  of  action,  especially  when  we  take  into  consideration  the 
untoward  materials  on  which  he  had  to  operate. 

"  It  is  a  peculiar  praise  of  Mr.  Pitt,"  says  his  biographer,* 
"  that  in  him  were  concentrated  several  powers  of  the   most 


*  Mr.  Thackeray. 


140  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

opposite  description,  any  one  of  which  is  sufficient  to  distinguish 
its  possessor,  and  the  union  of  which  in  one  man  has  generally- 
been  deemed  impossible.  In  him,  intense  powers  of  apphcation 
were  joined  to  the  quickest  perception,  and  the  rnost  brilliant 
imagination  to  the  soundest  judgment.  He  astonished  Europe 
as  much  by  the  energy  of  his  measures,  as  he  shook  the  senate 
of  Great  Britain  by  the  thunders  of  his  eloquence.  As  a  min- 
ister his  whole  attention  was  devoted  to  the  interests  of  his 
country,  and  perhaps  history  shows  nothing  equal  to  the  system 
of  intelligence,  the  vigor  of  counsels,  and  the  promptitude  and 
success  of  execution,  which  marked  his  administration.  It  was 
now  that  the  strenuous  system  of  Mr.  Pitt  began  to  produce  its 
effects.  As  he  had  taken,  in  a  great  measure,  the  superinten'^ 
dence  of  every  department  of  government  upon  himself,  his 
authority  and  example  now  began  to  excite  in  others  a  proper 
sense  of  their  own  responsibility.  When  they  saw  the  minister 
regular  and  indefatigable  in  his  country's  service,  they  also 
were  naturally  impelled  to  adopt  similar  habits  of  application. 
The  generous  were  actuated  by  the  noble  ambition  of  the 
minister,  the  mean  and  selfish  knew  that  they  had  to  deal  with 
one  who  would  call  them  to  a  severe  account  for  any  dereliction 
of  their  duty." 

One  of  the  first  objects  of  Mr.  Pitt's  attention  was  the 
protection  of  these  colonies  from  the  encroachments  of  the 
French.  But  before  he  attempted  conquest  abroad,  he  took  a 
bold  step  at  home,  by  sending  out  of  the  island  every  one  of 
those  regiments  of  Hanoverians  and  Hessians  imported  by 
George  the  Second  to  defend  England  against  his  Continental 
and  Caledonian  enemies.  To  supply  their  place  he  proposed 
to  call  out,  train,  and  organize  the  militia,  so  regulated  and 
established  as  to  allow  with  safety  the  sending  fleets  and  armies 
to  make  conquests  in  distant  parts  of  the  world.  He  used  to 
call  their  fleet  "  our  standing  army^^ ;  and  the  army  "  a  little 
spirited  body,"  so  improved  by  discipline  that  that  discipline 
was  worth  five  thousand  men.  "  If,"  said  he  in  Parhament, 
^'  you  take  care  to  discipline  the  farmer,  the  day-laborer,  and 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     141 

the  mechanic, -each  of  these  may  become  a  good  soldier,  and 
ahvays  prepared  to  defend  the  country.  It  is  dangerous  to 
our  hberties,  and  destructive  to  our  trade,  to  encourage  great 
numbers  of  our  people  to  depend  for  their  livelihood  upon  the 
profession  of  arms."  While  planning  and  encouraging  the 
militia  system,  he  paid  due  attention  to  improving  the  state  of 
the  army  and  the  navy.  .Both  soon  felt  they  had  a  new 
master,  who  knew  the  duties  of  his  own  nominal  station,  and 
the  obligations  of  theirs.  He  scrutinized  with  a  keen  eye 
every  part  of  their  conduct,  and  caused  every  officer  to  do  his 
duty.  The  whole  nation  perceived  the  warmth  of  his  spirit, 
and  the  military  experienced  his  electric  fire  even  in  this  remote 
region  where  I  am  now  writing.  Patriotism  rose  from  the 
couch  of  luxury,  and  sleepy  ambition  dreamt  of  buckling  on  its 
armour. 

No  one  understood  better  the  maxim  of  Lord  Bacon,  that 
"  Method  is  the  soul  of  science, ^^  than  Mr.  Pitt.  His  habits  of 
order  and  arrangement  did  much,  and  his  example  more. 
Though  at  times  grievously  tormented  with  gout,  he  was  inde- 
fatigable, regular,  and  punctual,  and  he  took  care  to  exact 
those  qualities  from  all  under  him.  He  not  unfrequently  gave 
orders  from  his  bed,  and  issued  important  military  directions 
when  he  could  not  use  hand  or  foot.  He  was  a  strict  econo- 
mist of  time.  He  avoided  all  ceremonious  visits  and  formal 
introductions.  He  declined  levees,  dinner  and  supper  parties, 
and  all  such  moths  of  time,  health,  and  business  ;  and  the 
result  was  a  bright  and  beautiful  procession  of  affairs.  Industry 
led  the  van,  order  maintained  the  centre,  and  despatch  closed 
the  rear  without  a  straggler. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  British  ministers  resident  at  foreign 
courts,  during  Pitt's  administration,  acknowledged  the  wonderful 
exactness  with  which  all  communications  were  made  to  them, 
and  the  clearness  and  perspicuity  with  which  all  their  instruc- 
tions were  expressed;  an  example  of  which  may  be  found  in 
his  instructions  to  and  correspondence  w^th  Mr.  Hans  Stanley  in 
1761,  respecting  the  preliminaries  of  peace  with  France.     Sir 


142  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

James  Porter,  who  passed  the  principal  part  of  his  life  in  a 
diplomatic  character,  often  declared  to  his  friends,  that  during 
Mr.  Pitt's  administration  there  was  such  a  correct  knowledge, 
and  so  active  a  spirit  pervading  all  the  departments  of  state 
and  the  concerns  of  government,  and  such  a  striking  alteration 
in  the  manner  as  well  as  the  matter  of  the  official  communica- 
tions, that  these  circumstances  alone  would  have  convinced 
him  of  Mr.  Pitt's  appointment  or  resignation,  had  he  received 
no  other  notice  of  the  event.'^ 

In  the  year  1758  the  British  arms  were  successful  in  every 
quarter  of  the  globe.  Despatch,  confidence,  clear  information, 
and  victory,  proceeded  from  the  master-mind  of  Pitt,  who  en- 
joyed the  entire  confidence  of  his  Sovereign  and  of  the  whole 
Parliament.  The  almost  lost  honor  of  Britain  was  recovered, 
and  her  natives  awakened  to  a  recollection  of  their  former  char- 
acter. Great  as  were  the  successes  of  the  year  fifty-eight, 
those  of  the  year  seventeen  hundred  fifty-nine  were  greater. 
It  may  be  called  the  year  of  unanimity  and  victory. 

Yet  in  this  year  of  splendid  conquests  the  seeds  of  discord 
were  sown  by  that  mischievous  hand  which  every  English- 
man ought  to  execrate,  and  every  American  forgive.  It 
was  owing  to  that  never-failing  source  of  dissension  and  strife 
in  little  minds,  the  patronage  of  places,  in  which  Lord  Bute 
interfered.  He  told  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  that  he  came  to 
him  in  the  name  of  all  those  on  that  side  of  the  administration, 
meaning  the  Leicester-House  party,  who  thought  they  had  as 
good  a  right  to  recommend  as  any  other  party  whatever.  It 
was  an  attempt  to  injure  Mr.  Legge,  Chancellor  of  the  Ex- 
chequer, a  highly  valued  friend  of  Mr.  Pitt,  and  a  great  favorite 
of  the  people,  to  accomodate  one  of  Lord  Bute's  family.  From 
this  small  beginning  rose  an  opposition  which  shook  the  nation 
to  its  extremities,  and  finally  divided  the  Empire. 

We  have  already  glanced  at  the  drowsy  condition  of  things 
before  Pitt  was  called  to  the  helm.     George  the  Second  had 

*  Almon's  Anecdotes  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     143 

now  arrived  at  that  age  of  man  when  business  is  a  burden,  res- 
okition  flags,  and  tranquillity  is  the  summum  honum,  yet  without 
any  remarkable  diminution  of  his  judgment.  France  was  at 
war  with  England,  and  Spain  betrayed  her  intentions  of  joining 
in  it,  while  the  spirit  of  the  English  seemed  in  a  measure 
evaporated.  In  such  a  lulling  atmosphere  it  is  no  wonder  that 
the  military  dosed  on  their  arms,  and  the  navy  rested  on  their 
oars,  while  the  nobility  and  gentry  were  taxing  their  invention 
to  find  out  new  amusements. 

Such  was  the  stagnant  state  of  affairs  when  William  Pitt 
blew  the  blast  of  war  in  their  ears,  and  roused  the  old  British 
spirit  from  its  slumber.  Its  clangor  was  heard  across  the  wide 
Atlantic,  and  echoed  back  from  these  American  shores. 

"  With  joy  we  view'd  the  waving  ensigns  fly, 
And  heard  the  trumpet's  clangor  pierce  the  sky." 

The  success  which  followed  in  Europe,  in  Asia,  and  in 
America,  rendered  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  the  second 
George  gloriously  memorable,  and  justified  Pitt  in  saying  to 
the  Duke  of  Dorset,  "  I  am  sure,  my  lord,  1  can  save  this 

COUNTRY." 

Here  follows  a  mere  catalogue  of  captures,  or  epitome  of  the 
Conquests  achieved  in  Pitt's  administration.* 

1757. 

"  The  Hanoverians  and  Hessians  were  sent  home,  and  a 
well  regulated  militia  established  ;  by  which  the  enemy  saw, 
that  we  were  so  far  from  wanting  foreign  troops  to  protect  us, 
that  we  could  afford  to  send  the  national  troops  abroad. 

The  foundations  were  laid  of  the  subsequent  conquests. 

Fleets  and  armies  were  sent  to  Asia,  Africa,  and  America. 

1758. 

Shipping  destroyed  at  St.  Malo. 


*  Taken  from  "  Anecdotes  of  the  Life  of  the  Right  Hon.  William 
Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham,"  published  by  Almon. 


144  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

Bason  and  shipping  destroyed  at  Cherburg. 

Emden  recovered  from  the  French. 

Senegal  taken. 

Louisbourgh,  and  the  Isles  of  Cape  Breton  and  St.  John's, 
taken.  * 

Fort  Frontenac  taken  ;  and  Fort  Du  Quesne  taken. 

Fort  and  Island  of  Goree  taken. 

Massulipatam  taken.     D' Ache's  fleet  defeated. 

French  army  defeated  at  Crevelt.  French  fleet  under  Du 
Quesne  taken  by  Admiral  Osborne. 

French  fleet  drove  ashore  at  Rochefort  by  Sir  Edward 
Hawke. 

1759. 

French  fleet  under  De  la  Clue  taken  by  Admiral  JBoscawe/?. 

Guadaloupe,  Marie  Galante,  Desirade,  he,  taken. 

Siege  of  Madras  raised.     Surat  taken. 

Niagara,  Ticonderoga,  and  Crown  Point  taken. 

The  city  o/"  Quebec  taken. 

Complete  defeat  of  the  French  fleet  in  the  Quiberon  bay. 

French  army  defeated  at  Minden. 

Shipping  destroyed  at  Havre. 

1760. 
Thurot  killed,  and  his  three  frigates  taken. 
French  army  defeated  at  Warburgh. 

Montreal  taken.  Frigates,  stages,  and  stores  destroyed  in 
Chaleur  bay. 

All  Canada  subdued. 
Dominique  and  Dumet  taken. 

1761. 
Pondicherry  taken;   and  all  the  French  power  in  India  de- 
stroyed.    Belleisle  taken.  French  army  defeated   at   FeUing- 
hausen. 


*  Great  assistance  was  furnished  by  New  England  forces  and  com- 
tnanders. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.    145 

1762. 

Martinico  taken.  Granada,  St.  Lucia,  and  St.  Vincent,  and 
the  Havana,  after  Pitt's  resignation,  yet  in  consequence  of  his 
plans. 

To  these  conquests  of  territory  must  be  added  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  French  marine,  commerce,  and  credit ;  France  lost 
the  following  ships  of  war,  which  composed  nine  tenths  of  her 
royal  navy  :  namely, 

Forty-four  ships  of  the  line,  viz.  four  of  84 ;  eleven  of  74 ; 
two  of  70  ;  seventeen  of  64  ;  two  of  60  ;  two  of  56  ;  one  of  54  • 
and  five  of  50. 

Sixty-one  frigates,  viz.  four  of  44  ;  two  of  40  ;  eighteen  of 
36  ;  two  of  34  ;  fifteen  of  32  ;  one  of  30 ;  one  of  28  ;  two  of 
26  ;  eight  of  24  ;  two  of  22  ;  six  of  20. 

Twenty-six  sloops  of  war. 

Besides  the  advantages  derived  from  all  these  conquests  and 
captures,  Mr.  Pitt  left  the  late  thirteen  British  Colonies  in 
North  America,  in  perfect  security  and  happiness  ;  every  inhab- 
itant there  glowing  with  the  warmest  affection  to  the  parent 
country.  At  home  all  was  animation  and  industry.  Riches 
and  glory  flowed  in  from  every  quarter." 

On  such  an  accession  of  wealth,  power,  and  reputation  to  the 
Romans,  triumphal  arches  and  superb  columns  would  have 
arisen  in  the  "  eternal  city,"  to  astonish  after-ages  with  her 
glory  ;  and  to  record  the  fame  of  the  man  by  whose  special 
counsel  and  energy  such  a  series  of  conquests  had  been  achiev- 
ed :  and  in  the  kingdoms  of  modern  Europe,  riches  and  the 
highest  honors  would  have  been  heaped  on  him  w4io  had  been 
a  prime  minister  of  such  renown.  Instead  of  that,  pamphlets 
were  written  by  hired  writers  of  the  King's  party,  and  in- 
dustriously circulated  to  brand  him  as  an  apostate  and  deserter, 
with  every  term  of  reproach,  that  malice  could  apply  or  deprav- 
ity suggest ;  and  every  art  and  method  was  practised  in  order 
to  change  the  public  opinion  respecting  the  glory  of  Pitt's 
measures,  the  honor  of  his  character,  and  the  purity  of  his  con- 
duct. Lord  Bute's  faction  dreaded  his  return  to  power,  and 
19 


146  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

therefore  nothing  was  left  untried  to  destroy  his  popularity;  and 
on  his  being  created  Earl  of  Chatham,  their  diabolical  arts  in 
some  measure  succeeded.  Had  this  been  the  work  of  the 
whigs,  it  might  not  have  been  so  surprising  ;  but  it  was  the  base 
language  of  the  Leicester-House  faction.  Newspaper  essays, 
oral  scandal,  and  every  other  channel  to  the  pubhc  ear,  were 
employed  in  calumniating  the  new  Earl  of  Chatham.  —  Smol- 
let*  Mallet,  Francis,  Home,  Murphy,  and  Maudit,  were  the 
chief  instruments  used  to  effect  in  England  what  in  some  other 
countries  is  often  perpetrated  by  poison,  f  Such  was  the  rela- 
tive situation  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch. 

The  first  year  of  Pitt's  war  was  enough  to  discourage  any 
other  man.  It  was  marked  with  laziness,  discord,  weakness, 
and  dejection.  Impediments  were  thrown  in  his  way  by  the 
followers  of  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  and  Lord  Bute,  yet  he 
so  far  overcame  them  all  that  in  the  second  year  he  frowned 
down  discord,  shamed  cowardice,  gave  aid  and  encouragement 
to  weakness,  and  chased  away  despondency.  We  should  bear 
in  mind,  that  want  of  virtue  was  not  only  the  characteristic 
of  the  British  ministry,  but  of  the  age,  of  which  the  contempo- 
rary government  of  Louis  XV.  was  another  striking  instance. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  the  incessant  clamor  of  the  waste  of 
public  money  and  Pitt's  peerage  and  pension,  raised  by 
hireling  writers,  should  at  length  slacken  the  strong  current  of 
his  popularity.  But  it  soon  returned  to  its  former  channels 
with  increased  force,  which  was  nobly  expressed  in  an  ad- 
dress by  the  city  of  London  ;  and  cordially  echoed  by  the 
populace,    as    the    following    anecdote  evinces.     It  has  been 

*  Dr.  SmoUet  was  among  celebrated  writers  what  Tenters  was 
among  artists,  an  exact  painter  of  low  life  and  mean  characters.  His 
forte  was  the  burlesque. 

f  "  The  sum  paid  to  these  and  other  hired  writers,  during  the  first 
three  years  of  the  reign  of  George  the  Third,  exceeded  a  hundred 
thousand  pounds :  and  the  printing  charges  amounted  to  more  than 
twice  that  sum.  And  as  to  the  few  who  might  attempt  to  undeceive 
the  public,  there  was  a  political  Judge  (Lord  Mansfield)  ready  to  punish 
their  temerity." — Almon. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.  147 

customary  for  the  Kings  and  Queens  of  England  to  go  in  grand 
procession  and  dine  in  Guildhall  on  the  next  ensuing  Lord 
Mayor's  day  after  their  coronation.  On  this  occasion  the  minis- 
ter was  honored,  in  all  the  streets  through  which  he  passed,  with 
the  most  enthusiastic  tokens  of  applause.  The  people  clung 
about  his  carriage,  uttering  shouts  of  joy,  while  gentlemen  and 
ladies  in  the  balconies  and  windows  waved  their  hats  and  hand- 
kerchiefs. The  courtiers  reported  that  his  Majesty  betrayed 
signs  of  displeasure,  that  the  respect  paid  to  Mr.  Pitt  was  greater 
than  that  shown  to  himself.  What  added  to  the  uneasiness  of 
royalty  was  the  unanimity  of  Parliament  in  support  of  Pitt's 
warlike  measures,  and  the  enormous  sum  (twelve  millions  sterl- 
ing) voted  to  carry  on  the  war.  From  that  time  the  destruc- 
tion of  his  popularity  was  the  principal  object  of  Lord  Bute 
and  his  superiors.  It  was  an  eye-sore  ;  —  it  was  an  object  too 
splendid  to  be  looked  at  without  giving  pain  ;  and  we,  in  this 
distant  region,  have  thought  that  the  peerage  and  the  pension 
went  far  towards  curing  the  evil  eye  ;  and  that  it  was  a  strong 
mark  of  the  monarch's  characteristic  policy.  Thoughout  all 
nature,  what  an  animal  lacks  in  strength  is  made  up  in  cun- 
ning or  venom. 

On  the  9th  of  October,  1761,  Mi»  Pitt  gave  in  his  resignation 
to  the  King,  and  was  thereupon  created  Enrl  of  Chatham-wkh 
an  annuity  of  three  thousand  pounds  sterling.  On  the  same 
day.  Earl  Temple,  keeper  of  the  King's  privy  seal,  resigned 
that  office. 

Henceforward  we  are  to  view  Lord  Chatham  as  a  member  of 
Parliament  only,  with  no  other  influence  than  his  great  char- 
acter, matchless  talents,  spotless  integrity,  and  overpowering 
oratory.  He  doubtless  found  and  felt  the  change.  If  obsequi- 
ousness ceased  to  follow  him,  and  confidence  stood  aloof,  it  was 
occasioned  by  no  alteration  in  his  sentiments  or  change  in  his 
principles.  As  a  member  of  the  House  of  Lords,  not  one  of  his 
former  political  associates  in  the  Commons  could  impeach  his 
conduct  or  his  virtue,  or  reproach  him  for  relaxation  in  the 
great  cause  of  the  people.     On  the  contrary,  he  never  exerted 


148  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

himself  to  greater  effect.  But  the  influence  of  corruption  to 
feed  avarice  and  vanity,  was  every  where  discernible.  In  their 
House  of  Representatives  homage  was  paid  to  the  distributor 
of  rewards,  and  the  predominant  desire  was  to  get  into  a  lu- 
crative station,  or  to  remain  in  possession  of  what  they  en- 
joyed. 

It  was  in  October,  1760,  that  King  George  the  Second  un- 
expectedly expired.  He  dropped  dead  on  the  floor  from,  lite- 
rally speaking,  a  broken  heart,*  with  no  one  near  him,  as 
suddenly  as  if  shot ;  and  that  without  any  previous  illness 
whatever.  One  of  the  latest  historians  adds,  —  "  weltering  on 
the  floor."! 

Notwithstanding  his  general  good  character  as  a  brave,  hon- 
orable, just,  and  well-intentioned  man,  few  regretted  his  death. 
Subjects  become  tired  of  a  long  reign ;  and  the  Britons,  whose 
ruling  passion  is  novelty,  are  more  apt  to  be  impatient  than 
most  other  people.  They  felt  its  tediousness  before  Mr.  Pitt 
took  the  helm.  The  vigor,  activity,  and  success  of  his  ad- 
ministration dissipated,  for  a  time,  the  drowsiness  occasioned 
by  an  octogenarian  sovereign,  and  that  perplexing  state  of  am- 
biguity which  never  fails  to  take  place  between  the  rising  and 
setting  sun  of  a  nation,  when  it  is  neither  clear  day  nor  dark 
night,  but  a  puzzling  twilight.  In  such  a  season  young  Princes 
are  apt  to  lose  the  right  way,  and  old  monarchs  to  see  dimly. 
It  is  moreover  a  trying  situation  for  ministers,  domestic  gov- 
ernors, and  young  courtiers.  Whoever  takes  the  lead  must 
go  before  those  highly  privileged  mortals ;  and  dull  and  posi- 
tive dotage,  and  rash,  inexperienced  juvenility,  are  equally 
conceited  of  their  powers  and  jealous  of  direction. 

"  As  to  the  successor  of  George  the  Second,"  and  we 
choose  to  cite  the  words  of  a  reputable  and  intelligent  British 
writer,  f  "  the  effects  of  the  wickedness  of  his  advisers  have 

*  A  rupture  of  one  of  its  ventricles. 

f  History  of  the  Reign  of  George  III.,   by  Robert  Bisset,  LL.  D. 
London,  1803. 
t  Mr.  John  Almon  was  an  eminent  Bookseller  in  London,  enjoying 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     149 

been,  and  are  still  too  deeply  felt  to  be  described  in  any  terms 
adequate  to  the  injuries  committed.  Posterity,  in  a  subsequent 
age,  [he  might  have  added,  or  in  another  country  where  the 
English  is  vernacular,']  when  truth  may  be  spoken,  and  the 
motives  of  men  laid  open,  will  be  astonished  at  the  conduct 
of  their  ancestors  at  this  period."  —  "Notwithstanding  this 
confirmed  state  of  modern  depravity.  Truth  will  continue  to 
have  her  worshippers  ;  and  it  may  be  presumed  that  they  will, 
in  the  present  age,  as  they  have  in  former  ages,  survive  the 
advocates  of  corruption  and  falsehood.  It  is  to  them  only 
that  impartial  history  can  address  herself;  from  them  only 
she  can  expect  protection.  The  betrayer  of  his  country,  and 
the  destroyer  of  public  liberty,  whether  supported  by  a  Corn- 
modus,  or  protected  by  a  Faustina,  may  endeavour,  by  the 
assistance  of  the  slavish  instruments  of  law,  to  intimidate  and 
to  strangle  her  voice  ;  but  conscious  that  she  has  Truth  for 
her  shield,  she  ventures  upon  a  task  that  will  give  a  new  com- 
plexion to  the  public  events  of  one  of  the  most  interesting  pe- 
riods in  the  annals  of  Great-Britain." 

a  very  extensive  correspondence,  and  the  oracle  of  the  times  for  news, 
particularly  what  related  to  this  country.  His  vendible  Library  was 
the  resort  of  men  of  the  first  consequence,  —  a  kind  of  literary  ex- 
change, where  convened,  not  only  members  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
but  men  in  higher  station.  Earl  Temple  was  much  attached  to  him  ;  and 
to  his  Lordship  he  dedicated  his  Revieiv  of  PitVs  Administration.  He 
likewise  published  Anecdotes  of  the  Ufe  of  the  Right  Hon.  William 
Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham,  with  his  Speeches  in  Parliament,  evidently 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Doivager  Countess  of  Chatham,  and  her 
brother  Lord  Temple,  and  also  by  the  assistance  of  Lords  Lyttelton, 
Fortescue,  and  Carysfort,  the  Right  Hon.  W.  G.  Hamilton,  Right  Hon. 
R.  Rigby,  Governor  Pownall,  and  others. 

We  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Almon,  and  to  his  close  follower,  the  Rev. 
Francis  Thackeray,  for  interesting  information  respecting  the  illus- 
trious subject  of  this  sketch.  Mr.  Almon  was  more  a  man  of  tlie  fash- 
ionable world,  than  Mr.  Henry  S.  Woodfall.  He  was  distinguished  for 
his  gentlemanly  manners  and  agreeable  colloquial  powers,  which  gave 
him  access  to  men  of  the  highest  rank  and  literary  eminence. 


CHAPTER  V. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM,  CONTINUED. 


When  George  the  Third  came  to  the  crown,  there  were 
high  expectations,  and  the  most  pleasing  predictions,  from  his 
being  a  virtuous  young  man  and  a  native  king.  Every  thing 
was  construed  in  his  favor.  His  afFabihty,  contrasted  with  the 
stiff  formahty  of  his  German  grandfather,  seemed  to  confirm 
this  notion.* 

Having  no  rakish  seeds  to  germinate  within  him,  he  passed 
the  most  dangerous  period  of  youth  with  his  dear  mother 
chiefly  in  the  nursery.  This  subtle  woman,  finding  she  could 
not  make  her  son  a  Solomon,  resolved  on  making  him  another 

*  Notwithstanding  these  flattering  presages  at  the  coronation,  the 
superstitious  portion  of  the  English  people  had  their  forebodings. 
They  remarked,  that  he  was  not  born  in  a  palace,  but  in  a  private  man- 
sion (Norfolk-house);  that  he  was  a  seven-months  child,  which  is  con- 
sidered by  some  above  the  vulgar  as  an  indication  of  imperfection. 
Whether  his  private  history  tends  to  strengthen  this  notion,  we  live 
too  far  off  to  decide.  His  own  mother  told  Lord  Melcombe,  that 
George  was  a  dull  and  timid  boy  without  any  apparent  partiality  for 
any  one.  The  Earl  of  Waldegrave,  who  was  his  governor,  says  of  him, 
that  "  he  has  a  kind  of  unhappiness  in  his  temper  which,  if  not  con- 
querered  before  it  has  taken  deep  root,  will  be  a  source  of  frequent 
anxiety.  Whenever  he  is  displeased,  his  anger  does  not  break  out 
with  heat  and  violence  ;  but  he  becomes  sullen  and  silent,  and  retires 
to  his  closet,  not  to  compose  his  mind  by  study  or  contemplation,  but 
merely  to  indulge  the  melancholy  enjoyment  of  his  own  ill-humor." 
The  same  nobleman  adds,  that  "  his  mother  and  the  nursery  always 
prevailed  over  his  preceptors  and  governor." 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHAFHAM.     151 

Joseph,  that  so  she  might  still  govern  him  when  king.  Those 
who  surround  heirs- apparent  know  what  key  to  touch.  The 
halo  about  the  young  king  soon  thinned  away.  The  honey- 
moon of  accession  had  its  natural  wane,  and  it  was  not  long 
before  England  became  filled  with  apprehensions  and  dis- 
contents arising  from  a  secret  influence  behind  the  throne. 
Straws  and  feathers  show  which  way  the  wind  blows.  It  was 
not  deemed  polite  and  proper  to  speak  in  terms  of  respect  or 
regret  of  the  late  king  ;  but  to  whisper  reproaches  for  his  at- 
tachment and  partiality  to  his  electoral  dominions  and  re2;ard 
for  the  whigs,  to  which  noble  phalanx  they  gave  the  invidious 
name  of  republicans. 

Pitt,  the  favorite  of  the  people  and  pride  of  the  nation,  was 
assailed  in  the  most  abusive  style  by  hireling  writers,  chiefly 
Scotchmen.  Frequently  their  railings  were  more  hke  savage 
rage  than  the  effusions  of  literary  men,  and  in  every  instance 
their  invectives  far  surpassed  the  alleged  cause.  The  voice 
of  these  political  drudges  was  strained  to  the  highest  pitch,  in 
order  to  convert  the  glory  of  Pitt's  victories,  under  George  the 
Second,  into  crimes.  Had  the  age,  the  region,  or  custom  al- 
lowed it,  a  poisoned  draught,  the  stiletto,  a  Tarpeian  rock,  or 
the  old  Tudor  axe,  would  have  terminated  the  glorious  career 
of  the  greatest  and  most  disinterested  prime  minister  the  world 
had,  perhaps,  ever  seen. 

Only  two  days  after  the  accession  of  the  native  king,  the 
Caledonian  Earl  of  Bute  was  added  to  the  privy  council.  The 
name  of  his  Royal  Highness  the  Duke  of  Cumberland  was  struck 
out  of  the  liturgy,  or  formulary  of  public  prayers,  of  the  estab- 
lished church.  Some  thought  that  the  unnecessary  severity 
inflicted  by  the  Duke  on  the  defeated  Scotch,  after  his  victory 
at  Culloden  in  the  year   1745,  was  one  cause  of  this  affront.* 

But  the  foul  torrent  of  abuse  poured  upon  Lord  Chatham 
and  his  most  distinguished  friends,  was  so  violent  and  unprece- 
dented as  to  produce  counter-streams,  which  uniting  formed  a 

*  It  might  possibly  have  been  a  church  and  state  etiquette  unknown 
to  us. 


152  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

cataract  that  ultimately  affected  the  repose  of  the  throne,  and 
actually  divided  one  half  of  the  empire  from  the  other.  Of 
these  counter-streams  the  famous  JVorth  Briton  was  the  most 
distinguished  for  its  force  and  foulness.  It  was  chiefly  against 
Lord  Bute  and  the  Princess  Dowager  of  Wales.  Nor  was  the 
young  monarch  himself  entirely  spared,  who,  every  one  sup- 
posed, might  and  ought  to  have  checked  and  discouraged  dis- 
respectful expressions  concerning  the  late  king,  his  grandfather. 

Mr.  Wilkes  was  considered  the  principal  writer  in  the  North 
Briton,  in  which  periodical  work  the  Scotch  nation  was  held 
up  to  derision  by  the  most  provoking  satire.  The  character 
of  Wilkes  was  not  adorned  with  every  moral  virtue,  nor  with 
very  extraordinary  talents  as  a  writer  or  speaker.  He  pos- 
sessed, however,  the  stubbornness  and  perseverance  of  the 
English  character  to  the  full.  Yet  was  he  a  gay,  witty,  profli- 
gate, and,  at  times,  profane-spoken  man,  with  remarkable  con- 
vivial powers,  more  calculated  to  shine  at  the  court  of  a  Charles 
the  Second,  than  at  the  levees  of  any  king  of  the  Brunswick 
line.  The  passionate,  vindictive,  imprudent,  and  indeed  ille- 
gal conduct  of  the  crown,  made  John  Wilkes  a  man  of  very 
great  consequence,  and  procured  him  a  degree  of  popularity 
and  favor  from  some  men  of  high  rank  that  was  astonishing. 
The  sovereign  people  actually  stepped  forth,  and  protected 
him  from  royal  vengeance.  The  virtuous  Earl  of  Chatham, 
though  he  denounced  him  severely  at  first,  at  length  advo- 
cated warmly  his  cause  in  the  House  of  Peers  ;  and  the  fas- 
tidious Junius  coaxed  and  flattered  him  in  private  letters,  while 
all  the  powers  of  royalty  were  exerted,  for  years,  to  crush 
this  man,  —  an  outlaw,  a  bankrupt,  a  libertine,  a  man  not 
worth  a  farthing. 

The  undignified  contest  with  a  private  subject,  the  inade- 
quate, or,  as  most  people  called  it,  "  the  infamous  peace," 
and  the  unwise  quarrel  and  consequent  war  with  these  North 
American  colonies,  mark  strongly  the  natural  and  the  kingly 
character  of  George  the  Third.  This  character  was  not  that 
of  cruelty  or  flagrant  injustice,  but  an  inflexible   obstinacy  and 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.  153 

ungovernable  self-sufficiency,  joined  to  a  wheedling,  cajoling, 
manner,  whenever  he  meant  to  carry  a  point  with  an  individual 
subject ;  as  in  the  case  of  the  unhappy  Mr.  Yorke,  noticed  by 
Junius. 

When  the  three  grand  questions  which  distinguish  the 
reign  of  George  the  Third  were  discussed  in  Parliament, 
the  strenuous  and  decided  part  taken  by  the  Earl  of  Chatham 
changed  the  secret  attacks  of  the  ministry  into  open  ones,  for 
his  dismission  from  office  had  been  projected  by  Lord  Bute 
from  the  king's  first  accession.  •  The  young  monarch's  mother 
incessantly  sounded  in  the  ears  of  her  son  this  short  but  em- 
phatic maxim,  "  George  !  be  King."  The  full  meaning  of 
which  was, — "  Be  not  governed  by  Mr.  Pitt,  as  was  your 
grandfather."  To  aid  this  solemn  injunction,  Bute  formed 
a  connexion  with  those  who  were  known  to  envy,  or  have  a 
political  dislike  of  the  great  minister,  as  the  versatile  Duke 
of  Newcastle,  and  Lord  Holland,  who  he  knew  had  been 
borne  down  and  humiliated,  again  and  again,  by  Pitt's  all- 
subduing  oratory. 

It  was  a  darling  object  with  the  Butean  or  Leicester-House 
party  to  emancipate  the  crown,  as  they  termed  it,  from  that 
dependence  upon  the  few  great  ivhig  families,  who  had  aided 
and  adorned  the  two  preceding  reigns,  and  who  derived  their 
weight  and  consequence  from  the  revolution  of  1688, — a 
work  of  their  hands  which  put  an  end  to  the  Stuart  race  of 
kings,  and  placed  the  ancestors  of  George  the  Third  on  the 
throne  of  Great  Britain. 

In  spite  of  calumniating  pamphlets  and  scandalous  insinua- 
tions, Mr.  Pitt,  though  aware  of  the  intrigues  against  him, 
calmly  maintained  his  station ;  while  the  king  himself  never 
failed  to  pay  him  the  ostensible  deference  of  a  son  to  a 
father,  which,  on  a  certain  occasion,  induced  Lord  Chatham 
to  say,  that  "  his  Majesty  was  the  greatest  courtier  in  his 
court." 

We   have   mentioned  already  the   unanimity  of  the  Parlia- 
ment during   Pitt's  happy  administration,     it  was  in  a  degree 
20 


I  54  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

wonderful.  Lord  Chesterfield  says,  in  a  letter  to  his  son, 
"  The  estimates  for  the  expenses  of  the  year  1759,  are  made 
up ;  1  have  seen   them  ;    and  what  do  you  think  they  amount 

to? No   less    than    twelve  millions  three  hundred   thousand 

pounds  ;  a  most  incredible  sum,  and  yet  already  all  subscribed, 
and  even  more  offered  !  The  unanimity,  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  in  voting  such  a  sum,  and  such  forces  both  by  sea 
and  land,  is  not  less  astonishing.  This  is  Mr.  Pitt's  doings, 
'  and  is  marvellous  in  our  eyes.''  "  * 

In  another  letter,  six  weeks  after,  his  Lordship  says,  "  There 
never  was  so  quiet,  or  so  silent  a  session  of  Parhament  as  the 
present.  Mr.  Pitt  declares  only  what  he  would  have  them  do, 
and  they  do  h  nemine  contradicente  (Mr.  Viner  only  excepted), 
but  nemine  quicquid  dicentey 

Soon  after  George  the  Third  had  taken  that,  for  him- 
self, fatal  step,  the  dissolution  of  Pitt's  unanimous  Parhament, 
Mr.  Legge  was  dismissed  from  the  chancellorship  of  the 
exchequer.!  This  gentleman  was  of  an  ancient  and  noble 
family  ;  born  in  the  same  year  with  Mr.  Pitt.  He  first  enter- 
ed the  navy,  but  soon  left  it,  and  became  the  domestic  and  con- 
fidential secretary  of  the  famous  Sir  Robert  Walpole  ;  and  had 
the  extraordinary  good  fortune  to  be  much  commended  by 
his  son,  Horace  Walpole,  who  rarely  praised  any  one.  Mr. 
Legge  possessed  sufficient  good  qualities  to  recommend  him  to 
general  and  particular  esteem,  beside  the  association  of  his 
name  with  that  of  Lord  Chatham,  during  whose  administra- 
tion his  talents  and  integrity  as  chancellor  of  the  exchequer 
were  most  usefully  exerted  in  supporting  the  Herculean  meas- 


*  Letter  348. 

f  The  Exchequer  is  the  court  in  England  to  which  are  brought  all 
the  revenues  belonging  to  the  crown.  It  consists  of  two  parts,  where- 
of one  dealeth  specially  in  the  hearing  and  deciding  of  all  causes  ap- 
pertaining to  the  king's  coffers.  The  other  is  called  the  receipt  of  the 
exchequer,  which  is  properly  employed  in  the  receiving  and  paying  of 
money.  It  is  also  a  court  of  record,  wherein  all  causes  touching  the 
revenues  of  the  crown  are  handled. — Harris. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     \  55 

ures  of  that  minister.  When  this  able  man,  of  inflexible  honor 
and  exemplary  in  all  the  relations  of  domestic  and  public 
life,  was  suddenly  dismissed  from  office,  it  was  pulling  away 
one  of  Mr.  Pitt's  props  in  the  exercise  of  his  most  labo- 
rious and  complicated  function  as  piime  minister.  Junius, 
in  his  Letter  to  the  King,  mentions  the  disgnissal  of  the 
chancellor  in  terms  of  displeasure.  To  render  the  remark 
more  pointed,  he  adds,  in  a  note,  "  One  of  the  first  acts  in 
the  present  reign  was  to  dismiss  Mr.  Legge,  because  he  had, 
some  years  before,  refused  to  yield  his  interest  in  Hampshire 
to  a  Scotchman  recommended  by  Lord  Bute." 

In  the  same  celebrated  letter  Junius  says,  to  the  King, — 
"  To  the  same  early  influence  [viz.  Bute's],  we  attribute  it, 
that  you  have  descended  to  take  a  share,  not  only  in  the  nar- 
row views  and  interests  of  particular  persons,  but  in  the  fatal 
malignity  of  their  passions.  At  your  accession  to  the  throne 
the  whole  system  of  government  was  altered,  not  from  wisdom 
or  deliberation,  but  because  it  had  been  adopted  by  your  pre- 
decessor." 

What  seemed  to  fill  up  the  measure  of  disgust  to  running 
over,  was  the  appointment  of  Lord  Barrington  to  succeed  the 
able  and  virtuous  Mr.  Legge.  And  it  is  remarkable,  that  Ju- 
nius has  emptied  his  vials  of  wrath  upon  this  nobleman,  who, 
he  declares,  has  the  blackest  heart  of  any  man  in  the  kingdom. 
His  indignation,  and  his  contempt  of  Barrington,  are  worth  the 
reader's  notice  in  this  inquiry. 

Lord  Temple  and  Mr.  Pitt  left  their  advice  in  writing  with 
the  council,  respecting  a  prompt  declaration  of  war  against 
Spain ;  which  being  rejected  by  the  king,  they  resigned  their 
places.  At  this  time,  it  was  fashionable  at  the  levee  to  shud- 
der at  the  horrors  of  war  ;  and  to  commiserate  poor  Britannia, 
bleeding  at  every  pore,  to  gratify  the  ambition  of  one  man  ! 
England  was  represented  as  fast  ruining  by  her  victories  ;  and 
Archbishop  Seeker,  deceived  by  this  court  cant,  imbibed  great 
hopes  of  directing  the  young  king,  hke  a  confessor,  through 
the    influence    of    his    religion,    and    he    accordingly    visited 


1  56  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

him  daily.  But  the  Defender  of  the  Faith  stuck  close 
to  his  prayer-book  without  wandering  into  new  superstitions, 
so  that  the  second  man  in  the  established  national  church  of 
England  could  only  join  in  the  then  fashionable  denunciation 
of  the  sinful  practice  of  war,  and  pray  for  the  "  scattering  of 
those  that  delighted  in  it^  * 

It  is  curious  that  the  pious  king  could  relish  no  war  except 
that  against  his  own  subjects  in  America,  and  that  he  highly 
enjoyed  upon  every  gleam  of  success. 

In  the  new  order  of  things,  Henry  Fox  (Lord  Holland), 
Lord  Chatham's  old  school-fellow,  attached  himself  to  Lord 
Bute,  through  whose  influence  he  attained  the  important  sta- 
tion of  manager  of  the  House  of  Commons ;  an  officer  un- 
known to  the  English  constitution,  and  unheard  of  in  these 
United  States,  and,  as  far  as  we  can  learn,  an  excrescence 
not  belonging  to  the  healthy  body  of  the  state,  but  a  redun- 
dant or  morbid  fungus,  generated  by  corruption,  arising  from 
errors  in  the  first  concoction,  and  affecting  all  the  subsequent 
ones.  However  incredible  it  may  appear  to  the  American 
reader,  we  can  assure  him,  that  such  a  privy  purse-holder  is 
selected  by  the  ministry  of  the  British  kings,  and  that  the  post 
is  an  object  of  ardent  contention  among  men  of  high  station. 
It  is  usually  given  to  some  Secretary  of  State.  His  business 
is  to  distribute  among  those  members  of  the  House  who  have 
no  ostensible  places,  sums  of  money,  over  and  above  con- 
tracts, lottery  tickets,  and  other  douceurs,  w^ith  the  only  con- 
dition of — "  Give  us  your  vote^ 

Amidst  this  flagrant  depravity  and  systematic  bribery  the 
proud  City  of  London  remained  pure,  and  free  from  suspicion. 
Habitual  mercantile  honor  pervaded  her  politics,  the  offspring 
of  that  wise  maxim,  "  Honesty  is  the  best  policy,"  while 
all  around  her  were  bartering  honor  for  gold.  The  Earl  of 
Chatham,  both  before  and  after  he  attained  a  seat  in  the  House 
of  Peers,  extended  a  marked  attention  to  the  city  of  London. 

*  Psalm  6Q. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     157 

Since  the  dissolute  times  of  Charles  the  Second,  it  had  been 
fashionable  at  the  west  end  of  the  town,  and  among  courtiers, 
to  laugh  at  the  city  authorities,  and  ridicule  the  annual  parade 
and  gorgeous  exhibition  of  the  riches,  privileges,  and  freedom 
of  that  matchless  emporium,  which  the  celebrated  Linnceus  de- 
nominated, with  his  characteristic  felicity,  the  ^^  punctum,  vita. 
in  vitello  orbis."  Our  great  statesman  viewed  his  natal  city 
in  the  same  point  of  view  ;  at  which  we  wonder  not ;  for 
where  upon  this  globe  can  we  find  a  city  capable  of  such  a 
demonstration  of  wealth,  liberty,  and  influence,  as  London? 
This  metropolis  was  a  counter-balance  to  the  alarming  encroach- 
ments of  the  crown  during  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  reign  of 
George  the  Third.  In  the  year  1770,  the  Earl  of  Chatham 
said  in  the  House  of  Lords, — "  When  I  mentioned  the  Live- 
ry of  London,  I  thought  I  saw  a  sneer  upon  some  faces  ;  but 
let  me  tell  you,  my  Lords,  though  I  have  the  honor  to  sit  in 
this  House  as  a  Peer  of  the  realm,  coinciding  with  these  honest 
citizens  in  opinion,  I  am  proud  of  the  honor  of  associating  my 
name  with  theirs.  And  let  me  tell  the  noblest  of  you  all,  it 
would  be  an  honor  to  you.  The  Livery  of  London  were  re- 
spectable long  before  the  reformation.  The  Lord  Mayor  of 
London  was  a  Principal  among  the  twenty-five  Barons  who 
received  Magna  Charta  from  King  John,  and  they  have  ever 
since  been  considered  to  have  a  principal  weight  in  all  the 
affairs  of  government." 

The  peerage  conferred  upon  Pitt,  with  a  pension  proper  to 
support  that  rank,  was  blazoned  abroad,  by  those  very  hireling 
writers  who  were  paid  for  abusing  him  as  minister.  They 
represented  him  as  an  apostate,  a  deserter  of  the  cause  of  the 
people,  and  his  pension  a  vile  bargain  for  abandoning  the  pub- 
lic interest.  Such  reherated  accusations  at  length  made  an  un- 
favorable impression  on  the  minds  of  some  who  ought  to  have 
spurned  the  calumny.  This  induced  Lord  Chatham  to  give  a 
full  explanation  of  the  reason  of  his  conduct  to  the  City  of 
London.  Whereupon  the  authorities  of  it  addressed  him  as 
follows. 


158  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

"  The  City  of  London,  as  long  as  they  have  any  memory, 
cannot  forget  that  you  accepted  the  seals  when  this  nation  was 
in  the  most  deplorable  circumstances  to  which  any  country  can 
be  reduced  ; — our  armies  were  beaten,  our  navy  inactive, 
our  trade  exposed  to  the  enemy,  our  credit,  as  if  we  expected 
to  become  bankrupts,  sunk  to  the  lowest  pitch,  so  that  there  was 
nothing  to  be  found  but  despondency  at  home,  and  contempt 
abroad. 

"  The  City  must  also  for  ever  remember,  that  when  you  re- 
signed the  seals,  our  armies  and  navies  were  victorious,  our 
trade  secure  and  flourishing  more  than  in  peace  ;  our  public 
credit  restored,  and  people  readier  to  lend  than  ministers  to 
borrow  ;  that  there  was  nothing  but  exultation  at  home,  confu- 
sion and  despair  among  our  enemies,  amazement  and  venera- 
tion among  all  neutral  nations  : — that  the  French  were  re- 
duced so  low  as  to  sue  for  peace,  which  we,  from  humanity, 
were  willing  to  grant,  though  their  haughtiness  was  too  great, 
and  our  successes  too  many,  for  any  terms  to  be  agreed 
on.  Remembering  this,  the  City  cannot  but  lament  that  you 
have  quitted  the  helm.  But  if  knaves  have  taught  fools  to 
call  your  resignation  (when  you  can  no  longer  procure  the 
same  success,  being  prevented  from  pursuing  the  same  meas- 
ures) a  desertion  of  the  pubhc,  and  to  look  upon  you  for  ac- 
cepting a  reward,  which  can  scarce  bear  that  name,  in  the 
light  of  a  pensioner,  the  City  of  London  hope  they  shall  not  be 
ranked  by  you  among  the  one  or  the  other.  They  are  truly 
sensible  that,  though  you  cease  to  guide  the  helm,  you  have 
not  deserted  the  vessel,  and  that,  pensioner  as  you  are,  your 
inclination  to  promote  the  pubhc  good  is  still  only  to  be  equal- 
led by  your  ability ;  that  you  sincerely  wish  success  to  the 
new  pilot,  and  will  be  ready,  not  only  to  warn  him  and  the 
crew  of  rocks  and  quicksands,  but  to  assist  in  bringing  the  ship 
through  the  storm  into  a  safe  harbour." 

If  Lord  Chatham  was  highly  honored  in  his  own  country, 
he  was  scarcely  less  so  in  this.  No  name  upon  earth  was 
more  venerated  in  America  than   William  Pitt,   so  long  as 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.  159 

I  can  remember.*  Whether  when  "the  great  Commoner " 
was  created  a  Peer  he  sunk  his  great  name  in  that  of  Chathnm, 
is  not  for  me  to  say.  To  us  who  know  nothing  of  heraldry, 
and  who  dwell  in  a  peerless  country,  the  title  of  Chatham 
seems  more  appropriate  to  the  famous  Dutch  admiral  De  Ruy- 
ter  f  and  his  family,  than  to  the  first  statesman  and  orator  of 
the  British  nation.  Honors  appear  strangely  conferred  and 
withheld  in  England.  Who  did  most  service  to  the  realm,  and 
honor  to  the  nation,  John  Churchill,  Duke  of  Marlborough,  or 
William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham'}  For  the  first,  the  nation 
built  a  superb  and  very  costly  palace.  To  the  latter  was  given 
an  inferior  title,  and  a  pension  smaller  than  that  bestowed  on 
Sir  Robert  Walpole.  However  Chatham's  great  mind  may 
have  succeeded  in  restraining  the  expression  of  his  disgust,  it 
must  have  been  grating  to  his  fiery  temper  to  see  the  very 
best  fruits  of  the  conquests  achieved  under  his  direction,  given 
back  to  France  and  to  Spain,  J  for  money  to  pamper  indi- 
viduals. § 

If  the  world  have  execrated  the  wretch  who,  to  eternize  his 
name,  burnt  a  most  gorgeous  temple  of  antiquity,  what  should 
Englishmen  say  of  him  who  should  prostrate  their  temple  of 
fame  and  honor  ?  Who  could  have  felt  this  so  keenly  as  the 
prime  architect  of  it  himself,  the  Earl  of  Chatham  ? 

The  Earl  of  Chesterfield,  who,  without  loving  Mr.  Pitt, 
greatly  admired  him,  says  to  his  son,  that,  "on  his  becoming 
Earl  of  Chatham,  he  had  a  fall  up  stairs,  and  has  done  himself 

*  Sixty  years  ago,  the  most  frequent  signs  at  the  inns  and  taverns  in 
New  England  were  Mr.  Pitt — and  the  King  of  Prussia. 

f  In  1667  Admiral  de  Ruyter  sailed  up  the  river  Medway  and  burnt 
Chatham,  at  that  time  the  principal  station  of  the  Royal  navy,  and 
within  30  miles  of  London,  together  with  several  of  their  first-rate  and 
other  men  of  war,  and  returned  in  triumph  to  Amsterdam,  where  is  a 
superb  marble  monument  erected  to  his  honor, 

\  As  the  island  of  Cuba  ;  a  future  Atlantic  kingdom  in  itself. 

§  See  the  examination  of  Dr.  Musgrave  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, recorded  in  a  note  to  the  XXII.  Chapter  of  "  Almoa's  Anec- 
dotes and  Speeches  of  Lord  Chatham." 


160  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

SO  much  hurt  that  he  will  never  be  able  to  stand  upon  his  legs 
again.  Every  body  is  puzzled  how  to  account  for  this  step  ; 
though  it  would  not  be  the  first  time  that  great  abilities  have 
b.een  duped  hy  cunning.  But  be  it  what  it  will,  he  is  now  only 
Earl  of  Chatham,  and  no  longer  Mr.  Pitt,  in  any  respect  what- 
ever. To  withdraw,  in  the  fullness  of  his  power  and  in  the 
utmost  gratification  of  his  ambition,  from  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, which  procured  him  his  power,  and  which  could  alone 
ensure  it  to  him,  and  to  go  into  that  hospital  of  incurables, 
the  House  of  Lords,  is  a  measure  so  unaccountable,  that  noth- 
ing but  proof  positive  could  have  made  me  believe  it.  There 
is  one  bad  sign  for  Lord  Chatham,  in  his  new  dignity,  which 
is,  that  all  his  enemies,  without  exception,  rejoice  at  it ;  and 
all  his  friends  are  stupefied  and  dumfounded."  This  is  not  the 
first  time,  the  public  has  seen  that  Lord  Chesterfield  erred 
in  judgment.  He  had  no  scales  or  standard  by  which  to  de- 
termine the  sterling  value  of  Lord  Chatham. 

During  the  years  1766  and  1767,  Lord  Chatham  suffered 
grievously  from  erratic  gout,  with  its  usual  concomitant,  dejec- 
tion of  spirits.  He  resorted  to  Bath,  where  was  Lord  Ches- 
terfield with  the  same  disorder,  who  writes  to  his  son,  Philip 
Stanhope,  that  "  Mr.  Pitt  keeps  his  bed  here  with  a  very  real 
gout,  and  not  a  political  one,  as  is  often  suspected."  More  than 
a  year   after,   December  19,  1767,  he  writes   again   from  the 

same  place.     "  Lord  Chatham's  physician,  Dr. ,  had  very 

ignorantly  checked  a  coming  fit  of  the  gout,  and  scattered  it 
about  his  body,  and  it  fell  particularly  on  his  nerves,  so  that  he 
continues  exceedingly  vaporish.  He  would  neither  see  nor 
speak  to  any  body  while  he  was  here.  This  time  twelve- 
month, he  was  here  in  good  health  and  spirits ;  but  for 
these  last  eight  months  he  has  been  absolutely  invisible  to 
his  most  intimate  friends ;  he  would  receive  no  letters,  nor 
so  much  as  open  any  packet  about  business."  In  another 
letter,  January  29,  1768,  Chesteifield  says,  "Lord  Chat- 
ham is  at  his  re-purchased  house  at  Hayes,  but  sees  no 
mortal.     Some  say  he  has  a  fit  of  the  gout,  which  would 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.  161 

probably  do  him  good  ;    but  many  diink  that  his  worst  com- 
plaint is  in  his  head,  which  I  am  afraid  is  too  true." 

When  Lord  Chatham  resorted  for  the  the  last  time  to  Bath, 
he  was  indeed  a  sick  man.  His  constitution  appeared  to  be 
giving  way  to  a  depression  of  spirits  and  a  corresponding  weak- 
ness of  mind.  His  whole  system  seemed  so  concussated, 
that  his  physicians  at  Bath  declared  their  despair  of  his  life. 
Whenever  a  very  great  man  in  high  station  happens  to  be  af- 
flicted with  those  symptoms  that  naturally  belong  to  three- 
score years  of  age,  his  enemies,  at  once,  attribute  them  to  a 
troubled  mind  operating  upon  the  body,  and  not,  as  in  nine 
instances  in  ten,  to  the  body  operating  on  the  mind.  The 
concussion  of  an  originally  strong  constitution,  early  shattered 
by  hereditary  gout,  was  exultingly  attributed  by  his  Lordship's 
foes  to  chagrin  and  mortification,  at  seeing  the  political  world 
going  on  without  him,  when  in  fact  it  was  the  natural  effect 
of  a  cruel  chronic  disease,  making  its  attack  in  the  narrowest 
and  most  dangerous  defile  of  adult  life. 

The  source  or  head-quarters  of  the  gout  is  in  the  centre  of 
our  bodies,  chiefly  in  the  prime  organ  of  digestion,  and  mani- 
fests itself  by  what  the  old  school  of  medicine  denominated, 
happily  enough,  an  error  or  defect  in  the  first  concoction,  pro- 
ducing derangement  in  all  the  other  functions,  even  to  that  of 
intellect.  During  the  alteration  in  our  bodies  by  the  course  of 
time  and  the  changing  events  of  life,  the  vires  medicatrices 
naturcB  exercise  their  powers  from  this  centre, — this  focus, 
hearth,  or  fire-place  of  our  tabernacle ;  hence  the  ebbing 
and  flowing  of  the  tide  of  spirits  in  most  gouty  subjects  ; 
hence  the  fiery  rage  of  the  poet  and  the  orator;  hence  the 
deep,  atrabilarious  gloom  of  the  hypochondriac.  Lord  Chat- 
ham's physicians  did  not  sufficiently  consider,  that  the  noble 
sufferer  had  arrived  at  that  ticklish  period  of  man's  life,  that 
critical  round  in  the  ladder  of  our  mortal  progression,  which 
many  never  get  over,  and  few  pass  without  a  violent  struggle. 
This  is  not  an  astrological  whim,  sprouting  out  of  the  Pytha- 
gorean doctrine  of  the  mystical  number  seven  misunderstood, 
21 


162  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

but  grounded  in  nature  and  confirmed  by  close  observation. 
It  arrested  the  attention  of  Plato,  of  Cicero,  and  Aulus  Gel- 
lius,  and  several  of  the  Grecian  writers  on  medicine.  It  is  a 
change  in  the  male  system  without  destroying  man's  identity, 
and  commonly  occurs  about  every  seventh  year  ;  sometimes 
short  of  it,  sometimes  beyond  it. 

It  is  between  the  twenty-ninth  and  the  thirty-sixth  year,  that 
the  vigor  of  the  body  and  the  powers  of  the  mind  generally 
unite  to  render  man  capable  of  the  greatest  exertion  of  both. 

At  the  age  of  forty-two  there  is  generally  a  visible  alteration. 
The  veins  on  the  back  of  the  hands  appear  larger  and  fuller. 
Apoplexies  very  rarely  occur  before  this  period,  and  bleeding 
at  the  nose  and  from  the  lungs  seldom  after  it. 

In  his  fiftieth  year,  a  man  discovers  some  waning  in  his 
memory.  Still  this  period  is  dignified  by  gravity  and  thought- 
fulness.  Between  this  period  and  the  next,  sedentary  men 
very  often  experience  a  loss  of  appetite,  disturbed  sleep,  and 
a  diminution  of  their  usual  cheerfulness,  and  have  a  sallow  as- 
pect, or  an  ash-colored  visage,  accompanied  with  inactivity, 
a  lack  of  resolution,  and  apprehensions  of  evil  from  slight 
causes.  The  sailor,  the  soldier,  and  the  hard-working  me- 
chanic now  know  the  luxury  of  a  seat.  If  there  be  no  chronic 
inflammation,  no  swelling  of  the  legs,  shortness  of  breath,  or 
signs  of  organic  lesion  in  any  of  those  viscera  destined  to  carry 
on  the  unconscious  operations  of  the  animal  economy,  the  sub- 
ject recovers  from  this  serious  spell  of  moulting,  which  has 
given  rise  to  the  popular  expression,  that  such  a  one  has 
"  taken  a  new  lease  of  his  life,"  seeing  he  has  increased  in 
flesh  and  firmness. 

Then  comes  the  age  of  Sixty-Three,  long  celebrated  as  the 
grand  climacteric,  being  noted  by  Hippocrates  and  by  Aris- 
totle. Suetonius  tells  us,  that  he  congratulated  his  nephew  on 
his  passing  one  of  these  stages  in  safety.  Looking  beyond  the- 
ories and  written  authorities,  let  us  try  to  construe  some  pas- 
sages in  the  Book  of  Nature  on  a  subject  that  comes  home  to 
the  bosoms  of  us  all.     At  this  important  period  of  our  lives, 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     163 

the  man  heretofore  pkimp  appears  to  shrink  ;  his  eyes  are  suf- 
fused with  tears,  but  from  no  emotion  of  the  mind  ;  every  visible 
part  becomes  less,  lean,  and  extenuated.  It  is  doubtless  the 
same  with  parts  and  organs  concealed  from  sight.  The  voice 
becomes  smaller,  the  hair  loses  its  color,  firmness,,  and  elas- 
ticity, first  on  the  temples,  called  by  the  Romans  tempora,  or 
the  footmarks  of  Time.  As  the  shrinkage,  dryness,  and  lean- 
ness prevail,  wrinkles  multiply,  and  the  lower  limbs  lose  their 
wonted  stability. 

We  have  reason  for  beheving,  that  similar  changes  take 
place  in  other  animals.  We  notice  those  only  which  we  have 
domesticated,  especially  that  tribe  of  birds,  which,  being  with- 
out a  specific  name  in  our  language,  are  therefore  cdWed  fowls, 
or  cocks  and  hens.  These  are  well  known  to  undergo  a  change 
in  three  hundred  and, sixty  days,  resembling  that  to  which  we 
have  alluded  in  the  human  species.  During  this  crisis,  the  noble 
game-cock  loses  his  courage  and  fierceness,  and  the  more  weak- 
ly ones  sometimes  die  in  the  struggle.  No  feeding  can  maintain 
the  vigor  of  the  first,  nor  care  preserve  the  latter  from  drooping. 
The  female  as  well  as  the  male  bird  is  disordered  and  unsociable. 
Poulterers  give  these  anonymous  birds  aromatic  articles  and 
spices  to  help  them  by  a  due  stimulus  to  go  speedily  through 
this  renovating  process.  The  woodcock  tribe  lose  so  entirely 
their  peculiar  effluvium,  that  the  dogs  cannot  smell  and  hunt 
them  out.  These  birds  appear  to  cast  off  their  old  feathers 
with  pain  and  fever ;  after  which  their  feathers  acquire  fresh 
brilUancy  and  beauty,  their  sociability  increases,  accompa- 
nied with  a  florid  turgescence  of  their  combs  and  gills,  and 
the  whole  flock  seem  teeming  with  life,  and  with  a  disposition 
to  perpetuate  it. 

All  these  things,  being  taken  into  consideration,  will  lead  us 
to  recognise  and  admire  a  law  of  nature  to  which  all  nuist 
submit,  from  the  brightest  of  the  human  kind  to  the  humble 
animal  we  destroy  for  food. 

The  melancholy  condition  of  the  illustrious  subject  of  this 
imperfect  sketch  arose,  most  probably  from  corporeal  causes, 


1G4  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

depending  on  the  living  fibre  and  the  living  fluids,  which,  when 
diseased,  operate  on  the  mind  and  on  the  body,  or  both  at  once, 
and  this,  to  a  certain  extent,  is  death.  What  could  be  expected 
from  a  being  long  tortured  with  pain,  and  manacled  by  infirmi- 
ty, with  a  mind  in  consequence  of  it  depressed  below  its  natu- 
ral greatness  and  self-command  ? 

In  the  gloomy  month  of  February,  1767,  Lord  Chatham  at- 
tempted to  return  from  Bath  to  London,  but  was  compelled  to 
stop  at  Marlborough,  where  he  was  confined  a  month  ;  and  then 
came  on  to  Hampstead,*  but  in  a  very  enfeebled  state,  where 
he  resided  some  time.  While  there,  the  King  sent  almost 
every  day  to  inquire  after  his  health,  in  soothing  terms  of  es- 
teem, respect,  and  consolation. 

Very  few  public  men  pass  through  fife  without  a  dark  cloud 
hanging  over  some  part  of  it.  The  heretofore  strong  and  clear 
mind  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham  now  appeared  weakened  and 
perplexed,  from  physical  causes  already  touched  upon.  The 
mighty  statesman,  who  astonished  and  awed  Europe,  and  sub- 
dued France  and  Spain,  now  bent  under  the  weight  of  years 
and  disorder.  His  popularity  -was  diminished  by  his  accep- 
tance of  the  peerage,  and  his  constitutional  malady  unfitted  him 
for  business.  The  national  affairs  appeared  to  be  again  in  as 
gnarled  a  state  as  when  he  was  called  to  the  helm  by  George 
the  Second,  in  the  year  1757.  Lord  Chesterfield  speaks  thus 
of  them  to  his  son.f  "  Eight  or  nine  people  of  some  conse- 
quence have  resigned  their  employments ;  upon  which  Lord 
Chatham  made  overtures  to  the  Duke  of  Bedford  and  his 
people,  but  they  could  by  no  means  agree,  and  his  Grace  went 
the  next  day,  full  of  wrath,  to  Woburn,  f  so  that  negotiation  is 
entirely  at  an  end.  People  wait  to  see  whom  Lord  Chatham  will 
take  in  ;  for  some  he  must  have  ;  even  he  cannot  be  alone 
contra  mundum.  They  propagated  a  report,  for  a  short  time 
believed,  that  the  Earl  of  Chatham  had  joined  the  Earl  of 

*  A  pleasant  village  in  the  vicinity  of  London. 

t  Letter  372. 

\  The  Duke's  country  residence. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.  105 

Bute.^^  At  this  time  our  great  statesman's  temper  was  evident- 
ly soured.  He  was  constitutionally  irritable,  quick,  and  im- 
petuous. Long  habit  of  dictation  in  rapid  business,  great  su- 
periority in  debate  and  of  mind,  gave  an  air  of  austerity,  if  not 
hauteur,  to  his  manners,  and  precluded  the  policy  of  a  con- 
venient condescension  to  the  minutiae  of  pohteness,  of  which  he 
was  a  complete  master  whenever  he  chose.  This  inattention 
to  the  small  things  of  the  philosopher,  and  the  great  things  of 
Lord  Chesterfield,  occasionally  chafed  the  feelings  of  some  of 
his  most  valuable  friends,  and  produced  a  temporary  coolness 
between  him  and  Lord  Temple.  The  excitabihty  of  a  poda- 
gric is  proverbial ;  and  when  vexation  and  disappointments,  im- 
paired friendship  and  resentment,  added  to  the  physical  causes 
already  mentioned,  preyed  upon  the  nerves  of  Lord  Chatham, 
we  wonder  that  he  ever  recovered  ;  yet  after  all,  he  sur- 
mounted the  struggle,  and  came  out,  like  the  king  of  birds, 
after  moulting,  with  renewed  beauty  and  increased  vigor,  and 
demonstrated  his  complete  restoration  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
by  transcending  all  his  former  eloquence  on  one  of  the  most 
important  subjects  ever  agitated  in  the  British  Senate. f 

t  The  American  question. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM,  CONTINUED. 


Previously  to  Lord  Chatham's  resorting  to  Bath,  he  had  a 
conference  in  the  royal  closet,  at  the  request  of  the  sovereign, 
respecting  a  new  ministry.  The  result  was  a  precipitate  for- 
mation of  one,  rendered  famous  by  Mr.  Burke's  description  of 
it,  as  a  piece  of  diversified  Mosaic — a  mere  tessellated  pave- 
ment without  cement ;  here  a  bit  of  black  stone,  and  there  a  bit 
of  white  ;  patriots  and  courtiers  ;  "  king's  friends  "  and  republi- 
cans J  whigs  and  tories  ',  treacherous  friends  and  open  ene- 
mies. 

While  Lord  Chatham  was  sick  at  Bath,  and  his  recovery 
despaired  of,  the  administration  was  without  a  leader.  The 
right  honorable  Charles  Townshend  assumed,  in  some  degree, 
the  reins  of  government ;  and  he,  in  conjunction  with  General 
Conway,  meditated  some  alliances,  with  a  view  to  establishing 
the  power  of  the  former.  In  a  word,  Mr.  Townshend,  a  gen- 
tleman of  brilliant  talents  and  lofty  views,  resolved  to  seize  this 
opportunity  to  fill  the  place,  which  it  was  thought  death  would 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.  167 

soon  make.  He  therefore  instantly  joined  the  court,  with  the 
most  full  and  explicit  declaration  of  sincerity,  and  his  aUiance 
was  favorably  received.  But,  reader  !  mark  the  end  of  these 
things,  and  learn  another  lesson  of  wisdom  !  Charles  Town- 
shend  died  after  a  short  illness,  and  Lord  Chatham  recovered  ! 

Lord  Charlemont,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Flood,  dated  London, 
February  the  19th,  1767,  says,  "  Lord  Chatham  is  daily  ex- 
pected, and  till  he  arrives  nothing  worth  informing  you  of  is  likely 
to  happen."  In  another  of  April  the  9th,  1767,  that  nobleman 
says, — "  Lord  Chatham  is  still  minister,  but  how  long  he  may 
continue  so  is  a  problem  that  would  pose  the  deepest  politician. 
The  opposition  grows  more  and  more  violent,  and  seems  to 
gain  ground  ;  his  ill  health  as  yet  prevents  his  doing  any  busi- 
ness. The  ministry  is  divided  into  as  many  parties  as  there 
are  men  in  it;  all  complain  of  his  want  of  participation. 
Charles  Townshend  is  at  open  war  ;  Conway  is  angry  ;  Lord 
Shelburne  out  of  humor,  and  the  Duke  of  Grafton  by  no  means 
pleased."  So  much  for  Burke's  tessellated  pavement;  a  meta- 
phor borrowed  from  Lord  Chesterfield. 

The  high  blown  hopes  of  Mr.  Townshend  and  his  friends 
were  blasted  by  his  death,  while  Lord  Chatham  lay  sick  at 
Hampstead.  Had  he  lived,  he  would  very  probably  have  been 
First  Lord  of  the  Treasury,  and  Mr.  Yorke  *  his  Chancellor. 

We  left  Lord  Chatham  very  sick  at  Hampstead.  The  king 
sent  almost  every  day  to  inquire  after  his  health,  desiring  him 
not  to  be  concerned  at  his  confinement,  or  absence  from  pub- 
lic business,  for  that  he  was  resolved  to  support  him. 

In  consequence  of  the  apprehension  of  resignations,  his  Maj- 
esty, a  few  days  after  the  rising  of  Parliament,  wrote  a  letter  with 
his  own  hand  to  Lord  Chatham,  then  confined  to  his  bed,  ac- 
quainting him  with  his  resolution  to  make  alterations  in  his 
ministry,  and  desiring  his  Lordship's  advice  and  assistance. 
To  which  mark  of  respect  and  condescension,  Chatham  re- 
turned a  verbal  answer  "  that  such  was  his  ill  state  of  health, 


*  This  gentleman  destroyed  himself.    See  JuxMus. 


168  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

that  his  Majesty  must  not  expect  from  him  any  farther  advice 
or  assistance  in  any  arrangement  whatever^ 

On  which  the  reverend  Francis  Thackeray  remarks,  that  it 
is  scarcely  to  be  conceived,  that  the  same  ardent  and  high- 
spirited  minister,  who  formerly  retired  from  office  because  he 
was  not  allowed  to  guide  the  measures  of  the  country,  should 
have  sent  such  an  answer  to  his  sovereign,  without  accompany- 
ing it  by  the  resignation  of  his  seal.  But  this  reverend  gen- 
tleman should,  as  an  historian,  have  considered  the  well 
known  impression  on  the  mind  of  Lord  Chatham  respecting 
the  King's  sincerity  ;  and  as  a  minister  of  religion  he  should 
have  known,  from  his  parochial  duties,  that  the  bed  of  sick- 
ness, and,  in  this  case,  apparent  death,  was  neither  the  place 
nor  the  time  for  compliments,  or  the  multiphcation  of  words. 
While  a  clerical  historian  holds  up,  to  his  listening  flock,  Death 
as  the  King  of  Terrors !  he  should  praise  God  in  their 
hearing,  that  he  is  also  the  terror  of  kings !  with  whom  there 
is  no  trifling  ! 

The  Earl  of  Chatham,  so  much  superior  to  other  men,  was 
not  exempted  from  the  frailties  of  us  all.  He  had  arrived  at 
that  commonly  trying  period  of  man's  existence,  considered, 
from  the  earliest  records  of  medicine,  chmacterical,  when  he 
is  most  liable  to  stumble  down  the  hill  of  life, — a  hazardous 
epoch,  when  an  hereditary  or  constitutional  disorder  meets  less 
resistance  from  those  repelling  powers  of  nature  implanted 
within  us  to  ward  ofl"  premature  destruction.  Lord  Chatham 
had  "  originally  a  healthy,  sanguine  constitution.'^  But  who 
can  reason  down  his  shattered  nerves  to  quietude  ?  or  argue 
coolly  and  justly  with  his  nervous  symptoms  ?  or,  to  express 
the  same  idea  in  better  words, 

"  Who  can  hold  a  fire  in  his  hand 
By  thinking  on  the  frosty  Caucasus  ? 
Or  wallow  naked  in  December's  snow 
By  thinking  on  fantastic  summer's  heat  ?  "  * 

*  Shakspeare. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATFIAM.     1G9 

The  Earl  of  Chatham  met  that  odious  visitant  to  pre-eminent 
distinction  in  its  wane  of  power,  "  the  marble-hearted  fiend,  In- 
gratitude." Lord  Charlemont  says,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Flood  in 
Ireland,  dated  in  February,  1767,  "There  has  been,  upon  va- 
rious topics,  a  great  deal  of  conversation  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, but  no  divisions.  One  thing,  however,  appears  very  ex- 
traordinary, if  not  indecent  ;  no  member  of  the  opposition 
speaks  without  directly  abusing  Lord  Chatham,  and  no  friend 
ever  rises  to  take  his  part.  Q^ui  non  dcfendit  alio  culpante 
is  scarce  a  degree  less  black  than  ahsentem  qui  rodit  nmiciini. 
Is  it  possible  that  such  a  man  can  be  friendless  ? " 

As  to  the  period  of  which  we  have  been  speaking,  political 
writers  of  all  parties  agree,  that  there  never  was  a  time,  in  the 
reign  of  any  of  the  Georges,  when  discontents  were  more  gene- 
rally prevalent,  or  when  the  people  were  more  wakened  to 
them.  The  causes  have  been  explained  in  a  masterly  manner 
by  Mr.  Burke. 

Lord  Chatham's  disordered  body  and  distempered  mind 
needed  tranquillity  to  recruit  both.  In  the  podagric,  the  total 
absence  of  arthritic  pains  diminishes  the  vigor  of  the  mind. 
What  is  that  in  the  gouty  man  which  counteracts  sluggishness 
of  intellect,  and  wages  war  with  stupidity  ?  It  resembles  the 
hectic  of  genius  in  all  its  high  pulsations  of  poetry  and  elo- 
quence. It  would  seem  that  the  great  minister  was  all  placidi- 
ty with  his  domestic  connexions,  and  towards  his  sovereign  all 
deference  and  respect,  whatever  he  was  toward  those  with 
whom  he  had  official  business.  He  sought  repose  in  the 
bosom  of  his  beloved  family  in  his  re-purchased  family  resi- 
dence at  Hayes  ;  and  this  calm  retreat  in  a  favorite  spot  had 
the  happiest  effects  in  restoring  his  mind,  at  least,  to  its 
pristine  vigor.  But  can  any  one  beheve,  that  the  capacious 
and  elastic  mind  of  Lord  Chatham  was  as  acquiescent  as  his 
body  during  this  retirement ;  that  he  would  allow  "  tlie  sen- 
sible, warm  emotion  to  become  there  a  kneaded  clod?" 
The  idea  is  incredible  !  Within  three  months  from  this  time, 
22 


170  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

he   returned   the  privy-seal  to  the  king  by  the  hand   of  his 
friend,  Lord  Camden. 

Behold  then  JUNIUS  Brutus  in  retirement,  brooding  over 
the  disgraces  of  his  country  and  his  own  personal  wrongs, 
meditating  her  deliverance,  and  fostering  his  own  feelings  of 
revenge, — always  strong,  but  now  rendered  acrimonious  by 
age  and  disease.  It  was  at  this  awful  period  of  pubhc  discon- 
tent and  keen  personal  feelings,  that  Junius  burst  upon  the 
British  public  with  the  suddenness  and  violence  of  an  Ameri- 
can thundergust !  * 

As  Lord  Chatham  had  not  the  meekness  of  Moses,  nor  the 
coolness  of  Washington,  we  may  imagine  what  were  the  feel- 
ings of  the  offended  minister.  A  man  strong-willed,  self-suf- 
ficient, and  powerfully  gifted,  naturally  imperious,  and  morbidly 
impatient,  in  the  decline  of  life,  racked  with  incurable  gout,  and 
living  a  life  of  decrepitude  and  self-denial,  without  one  cheering 
prospect  in  his  political  horizon,  must  close  his  lips  in  everlasting 
silence,  or  if  he  speak  at  all,  must  "  speak  daggers."  Under 
these  circumstances,  reflect  a  moment  on  his  incessant  labors, 
great  occasional  exertions,  and  eminent  hazards  ;  the  plans  of 
conquest  he  formed,  and  the  victories  achieved  in  consequence 
of  them  ;  the  best  fruits  of  which  were  given  back  to  France  and 
to  Spain  for  money — yes,  for  money  to  pamper  the  pride  and 
passions  of  the  King's  and  Lord  Bute's  friends,  for  the  nation 
had  none  of  it.f  Consider  also  the  native  king,  with  good  in- 
tentions, hurried  on  to  error  by  an  intriguing  German  mother, 
inculcating  obstinacy  under  the  guise  of  firmness,  while  a  sor- 
did Scotchman  was  littering  his  head  with  trifles,  and  stimu- 
lating him  to  exert  all  his  constitutional  powers,  and  some- 
what more,  to  crush  a  private  individual,  the  abetted  champion 
of  the  people's  rights.  J 

*  January  29,  1769. 

t  See  the  examination  of  Dr.  Musgrave  before  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. 

\  John  Wilkes. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     [71 

Perhaps  no  man  could  have  felt  all  these  mortifying  circum- 
stances so  keenly  as  he  who  had  directed  the  successful  war 
against  the  House  of  Bourbon,  conquering  the  French  islands 
in  the  West  Indies,  and  all  their  possessions  in  the  East,  and 
dispossessing  them  entirely  of  the  vast  region  under  the  name 
of  Canada.  The  honor  and  glory  of  old  England  lay  so  near 
Lord  Chatham's  heart,  that  they  constituted  his  ruling  passion. 
Next  to  that  in  his  affections  were  these  North  American  colo- 
nies. Take  likewise  into  view  the  dark  and  rolling  clouds 
rapidly  approaching  from  this  country,  after  George  Gren- 
ville  became  minister,  threatening  a  dreadful  storm  ;  and  we 
shall  be  convinced,  that  such  a  temperament  as  Chatham's 
could  not  possibly  sink,  at  once,  into  a  state  of  apathy  to  the 
manifold  dangers  and  disgraces  of  the  nation.  This  would  be 
to  suppose  with  the  sordid  vulgar,  that  Pitt's  patriotic  spirit 
evaporated  when  be  became  a  peer. 

The  condition  of  this  retired  statesman  was,  in  a  degree,  de- 
plorable. Disease  forbade  him  the  benefit  of  travelling,  pro- 
hibited hunting,  and  the  easier  gesture  of  ordinary  horse-back 
exercise  ;  and,  what  marks  his  bodily  decrepitude  still  stronger, 
he  was  unable  to  perform  on  any  musical  instrument,  so  cru- 
elly had  the  gout  fed  on  his  extremities.  How  could  such  an 
active  mind  of  ethereal  fire  fill  up  the  hours  ?  What,  think  ye, 
were  the  hora.  politicce.  of  such  an  experienced  personage  ? 
Thought,  keen  thought,  and  alternately  painful  and  gratifying 
reminiscences  j  for  none  could  suppose,  that  the  virtuous  Earl 
of  Chatham  could,  like  too  many  disgusted  men,  "  steep  his 
senses  in  forgetfulness." 

If  we  consider  human  nature  in  its  brightest  point  of  view, — 
genius  disciplined  by  careful  education,  as  that  of  Lord  Chat- 
ham's, we  cannot  suppose  that,  after  he  withdrew  from  the  tur- 
moils of  a  complicated  office  encumbered  with  deep  responsi- 
bility, he  could  have  sunk,  all  at  once,  to  indolence.  He  had 
raised  his  country,  in  the  short  space  of  three  years,  from  de- 
pression and  disgrace  to  exaltation  and  glory,  and  that  by  force 
of  his  superior  genius  and  spotless  moral  character.     His  plans 


172  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

were  the  wisest,  his  instruments  the  best,  and  his  success  the 
coinpletcst  of  any  prime  minister's  on  the  annals  of  fame.  Can 
it  be  believed,  that  a  statesman  thus  endowed,  and  with  trans- 
cendent eloquence,  should  have  left  behind  him  no  other  pro- 
ductions of  his  pen  than  a  few  very  tame,  if  not  lean,  letters  to 
his  son  and  his  nephew,  compositions  which  many  a  mother  in 
old  England  and  New  could  have  equalled  ?  To  such  a  mir- 
ror of  eloquence  "  vita  sine  Uteris  mors  est.^^  It  is  no  way 
probable,  that  the  ardent  mind  became  suddenly  cold,  that  the 
strong  and  burning  wave  of  political  zeal  stopped  at  once. 
These  sudden  stagnations  occur,  only  from  an  instantaneous 
stroke,  impairing  at  once  the  mainspring  of  the  intellectual  or- 
gan ;  whereas  Chatham,  it  is  well  known,  blazed  forth  in  Par- 
Hament,  two  or  three  years  after,  stronger  and  brighter  than 
ever.  Nay,  in  1770,  he  denounced  the  conduct  of  the  cabi- 
net in  such  a  bitter  and  overwhelming  torrent  of  eloquence,  as 
induced  several  in  the  ministry  to  resign  their  offices,  and 
sadly  distressed  the  monarch  himself.  It  was  when  the  king 
passionately  dismissed  the  Lord  Chancellor  Camden,  the  in- 
timate friend  of  Lord  Chatham.  This  was  a  period  of  confu- 
sion and  distress  at  court,  from  occurrences  which  rendered  the 
primary  object  of  it  a  subject  of  commiseration  and  tears.  It 
was  when  difficulties,  perplexities,  and  embarrassments  led  the 
monarch  to  send  for  the  Hon.  Mr.  Yorke,  to  whom  were 
offered  the  great  seals.  By  long  and  very  earnest  entreaties, 
which  at  length  overpowered  his  reluctance,  he  was  compelled 
in  a  manner  to  accept  them.  The  inffiction  of  this  high  honor 
compelled  the  unhappy  man,  soon  after,  to  put  an  end  to  his 
mortal  exisience.* — Who  can  wonder,  that  "  uneasy  is  the 
head  that  wears  a  crown  ?  " 

Few  people  in  this  country  are  aware  of  the  deep  impres- 
sion made  upon  the  minds  of  people  of  the  first  rank  by  the 

*  Junius,  alluding  to  the  violent  death  of  Mr.  Yorke,  says,  "  The 
most  secret  particulars  of  this  detestable  transaction  shall,  in  due  time, 
be  given  to  the  public.  The  people  shall  know  what  kind  of  man  they 
have  to  deal  with."     Is  that  due  time  not  yet  arrived  ? 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     173 

Letters  in  question.     Hear  what  the  eminent  English  moralist, 
the  very  able,  rough,   and   scragged  Samuel  Johnson   says  of 
the  author  of  them.     "  Junius   burst  into  notice  with  a  blaze 
of  impudence  which  has  rarely  glared  upon  the  world  before', 
and  drew  the  rabble  after  him,  as  a  monster  makes   a  show." 
This  is  unjust,   untrue,   and    abusive.     It  was  not  the  rabble, 
but  the  deep-thinking  aristocracy,  both  whigs  and   tories,   who 
were  moved  the  most   by  the  voice  of  Junius.     Dr.  Johnson 
adds, — "  He  is  an  unusual  phenomenon,  on  which  some  have 
gazed  with  wonder  and  some  with  terror,  but  wonder  and  ter- 
ror  are  transitory   passions.     He   soon  will  be  more   closely 
viewed,  or   more  attentively  examined ;    and  what   folly   has 
taken  for  a  comet,  that,  '  from  its  flaming  hair,  shook  pestilence 
and  war,'  inquiry  will  find  to  be  only  a  meteor,  formed  by  the 
vapors   of  putrefying  democracy,   and  kindled   into  flame  by 
the  effervescence  of  interest  struggling  with  conviction,  which, 
after  having  plunged  its  followers  in  a  bog,   will   leave   us   in- 
quiring   why  we    regarded   it."     What   labor, — what    painful 
straining  to  evacuate  a  hard,  mephitic  paragraph  !     Compare 
it  with  the  ease,  elegance,  dignity,  and  precision  of  most  of  the 
pages  of  the  writer  he  reviles.     The  Rambler,  in  pursuing  his 
figure,  lost  his  chemistry,  and  forgot  that  effervescence  and  pu- 
trefaction are  steps  to  regeneration.    The  literary  giant  adds, — 
"  Junius  has  sometimes   made  his  satire  felt ;  but  let  not  in- 
judicious admiration  mistake   the  venom  of  the   shaft  for  the 
vigor  of  the  bow.     He   has    sometimes    sported   with    lucky 
malice  ;  but  to  him  who  knows  his   company,   it  is  not  hard 
to   be   sarcastic  in   a  m.ask.     While  he  walks,  like  Jack  the 
giant-killer,  in  a  coat  of  darkness,   he   may  do  much  mischief 
with  little   strength."      All   this    appears   hke   a   day-laboring 
man  working  for  wages.     The  same  renowned  critic  proceeds 
thus, — "  Finding  sedition  ascendant,  he  has  been  able  to  ad- 
vance it ;  finding  the  nation  combustible,  he  has  been   able  to 
inflame  it.     Let  us  abstract  from  his  wit  the  vivacity  of  inso- 
lence, and  withdraw  from  his  efticacy  the  sympathetic  favor  of 
plebeian  malignity  ; — I  do  not  say  that  we  shall  leave  him  nolh- 


174  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

ing ;  the  cause  that  I  defend  scorns  the  help  of  falsehood  ;  but 
if  we  leave  him  only  his  merit,  what  will  be  his  praise  ? " 
That  is  in  substance  to  say, — Kill  the  lion,  and  give  his  flesh 
to  the  dogs, — break  all  his  bones,  and  pick  out  their  marrow, 
and  what  will  you  leave  of  the  monarch  of  the  woods  but  his 
matchless  skin  ? 

Mr.  Burke,  who  never  sold  his  brilliant  talents,  and  who, 
Johnson  thought,  was  the  only  man  capable  of  writing  the  Let- 
ters in  question,  took  a  different  and  more  honorable  view  of 
Junius.  He  speaks  with  astonishment  of  his  hardihood,  and 
admiration  of  his  talents,  knowledge,  and  integrity.  That  Ju- 
nius, in  a  visor  and  complete  armor  of  pohshed  steel,  was  a 
terrific  object,  appears  from  other  evidence  than  that  of  Burke, 
and  the  affected  contempt  of  Johnson.  Kings,  Lords,  and  Com- 
mons, the  army,  the  literary  aristocracy  of  Britain,  the  au- 
tocracy of  the  people, — all,  all  felt  the  power  of  a  free  press, 
when  wielded  by  the  hand  of  this  very  able  and  fearless  cham- 
pion of  liberty.  Instead  of  the  transitory  effect  of  the  princi- 
ples of  Junius,  predicted  by  Dr.  Johnson,  they  are  still  felt. 
Their  deep  impression  yet  remains  in  Great  Britain.  Nor  is 
this  all.  The  same  spirit  even  now  walks  these  shores  of  the 
Atlantic,  "  magni  nominis  umbra."  Nay,  more.  France  is 
wide  awake,  where 

"  Millions  of  souls 
Shall  feel  its  power, 
And  bear  it  down 
To  millions  more." 


CHAPTER  VII. 


LIFE  AND   CHARACTER  OF  THE   EARL  OF   CHATHAM,  CONTINUED. 


Great  Britain,  at  peace  with  all  the  world,  her  own  sub- 
jects excepted,  was,  between  the  years  1767  and  1770,  sadly 
perturbed  by  Wilkes  and  Liberty.  Behind  the  stalking-horse 
of  the  Middlesex  election  marched  the  formidable  corps  of 
ousted  and  resentful  whigs.  To  this  respectable  English  force 
was  opposed  a  Scotch  one,  commanded  by  the  Earl  of  Bute, 
assisted  by  Lord  Mansfield.  This  army  of  raw  troops  was 
rendered  in  a  degree  formidable,  by  having,  as  in  the  civil 
war  with  Charles  the  First,  a  royal  generahssimo  at  its  head. 
What  it  lacked  in  experience,  discipline,  and  steady  Roman 
valor,  was  made  up  by  the  magical  circumstance  of  royal  in- 
fluence. In  the  first  army  John  Wilkes  was  a  daring  and 
very  successful  partisan  officer  ;  while  in  the  latter,  Mansfield 
was  at  the  head  of  the  sappers  and  miners. 

The  first  Parliament,  in  the  reign  of  George  the  Third,  was 
dissolved  in  March,  1768.  Of  this  Parhament  it  is  observed 
by  a  sensible  and  candid  historian,*  that  it  exhibited  no  dis- 
tinguishing marks  of  legislative  wisdom  ;  that  its  chief  objects 
were  individual  prosecution  and  colonial  regulations ;  in  which 
its  members  proceeded  with  the  passion  of  partisans,  and  not 
the  cool  policy  of  senators ;  and  towards  these  colonics  with  a 
succession  of  contradictory  measures.  "  They  irritated,"  says 
the  historian,   "  conciliated,  and  irritated  again,   and   left  the 

*  Dr.  Biaset's  History  of  George  III. 


176  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

colonies  ill  affected  towards  this  country,  sowing  the  seeds  of 
the  American  war."  The  Commons,  raised,  according  to 
their  own  writers,  from  a  hot-bed  of  corruption,  seemed  busily 
employed  in  sawing  off  the  limb  of  the  tree  which  bore  them, 
or,  in  plainer  terms,  voting  away  their  own  privileges  to  gratify 
the  ministry. 

Lord  Chatham,  deeply  imbued  with  constitutional  principles 
and  the  purest  patriotic  spirit,  advocated  the  cause  of  John 
Wilkes ;  he  viewed  him  merely  as  an  Englishman  possessing 
certain  rights,  without  any  regard  to  his  merits  or  demerits  as 
a  man.  In  this  point  of  view  only,  the  question  was  contem- 
plated by  Lord  Chatham,  and  precisely  so  considered  by  Ju- 
nius ;  while  the  new-fangled  Parliament  talked  nonsense  about 
reformation,  when  their  only  rule  of  conduct  was  to  act  in  di- 
rect opposition  to  the  harmonious  one  which  terminated  with 
the  power  of  Pitt.  While  the  popular  party  adored  Wilkes, 
worshipping  they  knew  not  what,  the  partisans  of  the  court 
spoke  of  him  as  the  vilest  incendiary.  "  For  my  own  part," 
says  Lord  Chatham,  "  I  am  neither  moved  by  his  private  vices, 
nor  by  his  public  merits.  In  his  person,  though  he  were  the 
worst  of  men,  I  contend  for  the  safety  and  security  of  the  best." 
It  is  presumed  that  the  reader  bears  in  mind,  that  the  resent- 
ment of  the  people  arose  from  the  House  of  Commons  expel- 
ling Mr.  Wilkes  after  his  repeated  election  by  the  county  of 
Middlesex,  which  deprived  its  electors  of  the  free  choice  of  a 
representative.  On  this  occasion  Lord  Chatham  said  in  the 
House  of  Peers,  "  I  have  considered  the  matter  with  most  se- 
rious attention ;  and  as  I  have  not  in  my  own  breast  the  small- 
est doubt,  that  the  present  universal  discontent  of  the  nation 
arises  from  the  expulsion  of  Mr.  Wilkes,  I  think  that  we  ought, 
in  our  address  [then  under  debate],  to  state  the  matter  to  the 
king."     But  his  motion  for  it  was  negatived. 

On  the  22d  of  January,  1770,  the  Marquis  o{  Rockingham 
moved  for  fixing  a  day  to  take  into  consideration  the  state  of 
the  nation. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.  177 

The  object  of  his  speech  was  to  show,  "  that  the  present  un- 
happy condition  of  affairs  and  the  universal  discontent  of  the 
people  did  not  arise  from  any  immediate  temporary  cause,  but 
had  grown  up  by  degrees,  from  the  moment  of  his  majesty's  ac- 
cession to  the  throne  ;  that  the  person,  in  whom  his  majesty 
then  confided,  had  introduced  a  total  change  m  the  old  system 
of  English  government ;  that  they  had  adopted  a  maxim  which 
must  prove  fatal  to  the  liberties  of  the  country,  viz.  '  that  the 
royal  prerogative  alone  was  sufficient  to  support  government, 
to  whatever  hands  the  administration  should  be  committed ' ; 
and  he  could  trace  the  operation  of  this  principle  through  every 
act  of  government  since  the  accession,  in  which  those  persons 
could  be  supposed  to  have  any  influence.  Their  first  exertion 
of  the  prerogative  was  to  make  a  peace  contrary  to  the  wishes 
of  the  nation,  and  on  terms  totally  disproportioned  to  the  suc- 
cess of  the  war ;  but  as  they  felt  themselves  unequal  to  the 
conduct  of  a  war,  they  thought  a  peace,  on  any  conditions, 
necessary  for  their  own  security  and  permanence  in  adminis- 
tration. The  Marquis  then  took  notice  of  those  odious,  tyran- 
nical acts  of  power,  by  which  an  approbation  of  the  peace  had 
been  obtained.  And  he  mentioned  the  general  sweep  from 
office  through  every  branch  and  department  of  administration  ; 
the  removes  not  merely  confined  to  the  higher  employments, 
but  carried  down,  with  the  minutest  cruelty,  to  the  lowest  of- 
fices of  the  state  ;  and  numberless  innocent  families,  which  had 
subsisted  on  salaries  from  fifty  to  two  hundred  pounds  a  year, 
turned  out  to  misery  and  ruin,  with  as  little  regard  to  the  rules 
of  justice  as  to  the  common  feelings  of  compassion."  * 

*Here  we  may  remark,  that  the  cruel  and  unjust  system  of  removals, 
down  to  the  lowest  offices,  whicli  has  been  pursued  liere  within 
the  last  two  years  (1829  and  1830),  and  has  created  general  disgust 
througliout  the  United  States,  lias  not  even  the  merit  of  originality,  but 
is  copied  from  tlic  system  introduced  by  the  Earl  of  Bute,  and  pursued 
by  George  the  Third  to  his  own  destruction.  That  wretclied  policy 
called  forth  the  JVorth  Briton,  and  that  audacious  publication,  Junius, 
which  led  to   measures  that  divided  the   empire ;  otherwise  America 

23 


178  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

The  Duke  of  Grafton  spoke  next ;  and  after  him  the  Earl 
of  Chatham  said,  "  My  Lords,  I  need  not  look  abroad  for 
grievances.  The  grand,  capital  mischief  is  fixed  at  home.  It 
corrupts  the  very  foundation  of  our  political  existence,  and 
preys  upon  the  vitals  of  the  state.  The  constitution  has 
been  grossly  violated.  The  con-stitution  at  this  moment 
STANDS  VIOLATED.  Until  that  wound  be  healed,  until  the 
grievance  be  redressed,  it  is  in  vain  to  promote  concord  among 
the  people.  If  we  mean  seriously  to  unite  the  nation  within 
itself,  we  must  convince  them,  that  their  complaints  are  re- 
garded, and  that  their  injuries  shall  be  redressed.  On  that 
foundation,  I  would  take  the  lead  in  recommending  peace  and 
harmony  to  the  people.  On  any  other,  I  would  never  wish  to 
see  them  united  again.  If  the  breach  in  the  constitution  be 
effectually  repaired,  the  people  will  of  themselves  return  to  a 
state  of  tranquillity.  If  not, — may  discord  prevail  for  ever. 
I  know  to  what  point  this  doctrine  and  this  language  will 
appear  directed.  But  I  feel  the  principles  of  an  EngHshman, 
and  I  utter  them  without  apprehension  or  reserve.  The  crisis 
is  indeed  alarming ;  so  much  the  more  does  it  require  a  pru- 
dent relaxation  on  the  part  of  government.  If  the  king's  ser- 
vants will  not  permit  a  constitutional  question  to  be  decided 
on,  according  to  the  forms  and  on  the  principles  of  the  consti- 
tution, it  must  then  be  decided  in  some  other  manner  ;  and 
rather  than  it  should  be  given  up,  rather  than  the  nation  should 
surrender  their  birth-right  to  a  despotic  minister,  I  hope,  my 
Lords,  old  as  I  am,  I  shall  see  the  question  brought  to  issue 
and  fairly  tried  between  the  people  and  the  government.  My 
Lords,  this  is  not  the  language  of  faction  ;  let  it  be  tried  by 
that  criterion  by  which  alone  we  can  distinguish  what  is  fac- 
tious from  what  is  not, — by  the  principles  of  the  English  con- 
stitution.    I  have  been  bred  up   in   these  principles ;    and  I 

might  have  been  a  century  longer  dependant  on  the  realm  of  Great 
Britain,  and  its  sovereign  might  have  lived  out  his  days  with  mens 
Sana  in  corpore  sano. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     179 

know,  that  when  the  Uberty  of  the  subject  is  invaded,  and  all 
redress  denied  him,  resistance  is  justified."  * 

This  is  direct,  plain,  forcible,  and  decisive  language,  the 
very  characteristic  of  Junius,  with  all  his  fearless  spirit ;  and 
I  will  add,  of  no  other  writer  or  orator  whatever,  contempo- 
rary, anterior,  or  subsequent. 

Lord  Chatham  retired,  in  1768,  to  his  favorite  spot  at 
Hayes,  fifteen  miles  from  London,  where  he  saw  no  visitors, 
nor  answered  any  letters.  But  when  the  aspect  of  affairs 
became  alarming,  threatening  personal  as  well  as  general  lib- 
erty, he  left  his  couch  of  infirmity,  and,  repairing  to  Parlia- 
ment, broke  upon  the  delinquents  with  the  energy  and  fire 
of  a  divinely  inspired  prophet,  and  in  language  as  fearless. 
Where  is  there  an  EngHsh  prose-writer  who  comes  up  to 
Chatham  in  force,  fire,  noble  daring,  and  dignity  of  expression, 
exemplified  in  his  speeches  in  the  House  of  Lords, — Junius 
alone  excepted'^  Edmund  Burke,  abounding  in  lessons  of 
civil  and  moral  wisdom,  charming  with  flowers  and  metaphors, 
rich  in  illustration,  captivating  in  his  transitions,  and  splendid 
in  every  thing,  never  dashes  upon  the  soul  with  the  ir- 
resistible wave  of  Chatham's  invective ; — nor  does  any  writer, — 
unless  we  except  the  overwhelming  rage  of  Junius,  which 
struck  breathless  King,  Lords,  and  Commons.  If  Burke  was 
the  sublime  and  beautiful,  Chatham  was  the  sublime  and  ter- 
rible, and  so  was  Junius. 

Lord  Chatham  had  a  singular  enei'gy  of  style,  and  his  minis- 
ters abroad  at  foreign  courts  were  puzzled  to  clothe  his  ideas 
in  any  other  language  than  his  own.  The  Hon.  Hans  Stan- 
ley, who  was  sent  to  Paris  in  1761  to  treat  of  the  prelimina- 
ries of  peace,  writes  to  Mr.  Pitt  thus, — "  Though  you  are  ex- 
tremely skilled  in  the  French  language,  I  believe  you  would 
find  it  diflicult  precisely  to  translate  your  own  memorial ;  and 
that  you  would  often  be  obliged  to  exercise  your  judgment 
in  the  choice  of  phrases, — as  every  word  carries  a  distinct 
idea,  which  can  in  no  other  way  be  with    equal    force    ex- 

*  Almon's  Speeches  of  Chatham. 


180  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

pressed."  Is  not  this  exactly  the  case  with  the  best  Letters 
of  Junius  ?  It  corresponds  with  the  remarks  we  have  already- 
made  on  his  peculiar  style.* 

In  early  life  Pitt's  ambition  panted  for  the  tented  field  ; 
but  disease  pressed  him  into  a  different  service  ;  otherwise 
he  might  have  taken  the  right  of  Hannibal,  Caesar,  and  Na- 
poleon, in  the  laurelled  rank  of  great  commanders.  An  over- 
ruling agency,  that  which  gives  the  secret  bias  to  the  soul,  in- 
stead of  granting  him  the  flying  war-horse,  nailed  him  down  to 
his  bureau  ;  whence,  though  crippled,  he  influenced  powerfully 
the  minds  of  men,  prescribed  to  departments,  directed  fleets  and 
armies,  guided  senates,  instructed  monarchs,  controlled  na- 
tions,— Prussia  by  his  friendship,  and  France  by  his  hostili- 
ty,— and  caused  Europe  and  America  to  acknowledge  the 
force  of  his  mind.  Could  such  a  mind,  after  these  political 
and  martial  victories,  sink  down  into  torpidity  in  a  country  vil- 
lage, or  retreat  at  once  into  a  cave,  there  "  to  lie  in  cold  ob- 
struction and  to  rot  ?  "  It  is  incredible.  That  his  soul  of  fire 
was  not  damped,  the  House  of  Peers  could  testify.  Is  it 
likely  that  such  an  amhitious  mind  would  leave  his  fame 
floating  on  the  evanescent  breath  of  contemporary  auditors, 
without  one  effort  towards  perpetuating  his  great  name  through 
ages,  and  without  bequeathing  to  English  posterity  the  prin- 
ciples he  maintained,  and  his  remedies  against  those  disor- 
ders which  shook  the  constitution  of  England  in  his  own  times  ? 
No !  devoted  to  his  own  country,  and,  next  to  her,  affectionate 
to  this,  he  wrote  our  creed  with  a  pen  of  steel  upon  leaves 
of  brass. 

I  cannot  rid  myself  of  the  long  existing  impression,  that, 
when  King,  Councils,  Ministers,  Parhaments,  and  Livery-men 
refused  to  listen  to  the  advice  of  Lord  Chatham,  he  poured 
it  into  the  ears  of  an  anxious  public  through  the  medium  of  the 
press,  and  gave  it,  I  had  almost  said,  a  supernatural  force,  by  the 
mystery  of  concealment,  well  knowing  the  oracular  effect  of 
speaking  from  a  recess  which  no  curiosity  could  penetrate. 

*  See  page  106. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     181 

That  some  great  political  writer  was  about  to  appear,  who 
should  shake  all  that  could  be  shaken,  was  surmised,  if  not 
predicted,  in  Brown's  Essay,  entitled  "  An  Estimate  of  the 
Manners  and  Principles  of  the  Times."  This  able  writer  de- 
scribed the  unprosperous  condition  of  his  native  country  with  a 
sigh,  and  predicted  its  ruin  unless  there  should  be  a  speedy 
amendment.  The  grand  remedy,  which  he  held  up  to  the  pub- 
lic, was  to  operate  through  the  votes  of  a  people  uncontaminated 
by  corruption,  which  had  been  dealt  out  by  Sir  Robert  Wal- 
pole,  not,  as  he  contended,  to  bribe  members  of  Parhamentto 
vote  against,  but  according  to  their  conscience.  Beside  the  re- 
demption of  the  people  from  that  system  of  bribery,  Dr.  Brown 
speaks  of  the  redeeming  powers  of  a  Great  Minister.  After 
depicting  his  own  idea  of  such  a  blessing,  in  the  drawing  of 
which  he  doubtless  had  in  his  eye  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  he 
adds, — "  There  is  another  character  belonging  to  a  lower  walk 
of  life,  which  might  be  no  less  strange  than  that  which  is  here 
delineated, — I  mean  the  character  of  a  Political  Writer. 
He  would  choose  an  untrodden  path  of  politics,  where  no  party- 
man  ever  dared  to  enter.  The  undisguised  freedom  and  bold- 
ness of  his  manner  would  please  the  brave,  astonish  the  weak, 
and  confound  the  guilty.  He  would  be  called  arrogant  by 
those  who  call  every  thing  arrogance  that  is  not  servility.  If 
he  writ  in  a  period  when  his  country  was  dechning,  while  he 
pointed  out  the  means  from  whence  alone  honest  hope  could 
arise,  he  would  be  charged,  by  scribbling  sycophants,  with 
plunging  a  nation  in  despair.  As  he  would  be  defamed  by  the 
dissolute  great  without  cause,  so  he  would  be  applauded  by 
an  honest  people  beyond  his  deservings." 

Have  we  not  here  a  glimpse  of  Junius  ?  I  would  not  in- 
sinuate, that  the  eminent  ecclesiastic,  whom  we  have  cited,  was 
supernaturally  endowed  with  the  spirit  of  prophecy  ;  I  mean 
only  to  say,  that,  from  his  knowledge  of  men  and  things,  from 
the  throne  to  the  cottage,  from  the  royal  fleets  to  the  water- 
men on  the  Thames,  he  saw,  in  prospective,  that  concatenation 
of  causes  and  effects  which  must  lead  to  results  the  world  has 
witnessed. 


182  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

His  ideal  minister  does  honor  to  his  judgment,  and  his  ideal 
writer  to  his  sagacity.  Near  the  close  of  Dr.  Brown's  inter- 
esting book,  he  remarks,  that  his  ideal  minister  has  been 
found  ;  and  we  say,  that  his  ideal  great  political  writer  has 
also  been  found  ;  and  we  shall  try  to  show  that  they  were 
united  in  the  same  illustrious  individual. 

The  Letters  of  Junius  and  the  speeches  of  Lord  Chatham 
form  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  English  literature  and  oratory. 
Dr.  Swift,  Dean  of  St.  Patrick's,  who  died  about  a  dozen 
years  before  the  Rev.  Dr.  Brown  wrote  his  Essay  on  the 
Manners  and  Principles  of  his  own  times,  was  a  party-wTiter, 
and  obtained  his  consequence  and  his  church  promotion,  if  not 
his  fame,  from  that  species  of  writing.  He  was  celebrated  for  a 
strong,  able,  severe,  and  satirical  pen,  with  little  delicacy. 
Some  dwell  with  apparent  horror  on  what  they  call  the  malig- 
nity of  Junius,  who  is  sparing  of  harsh  epithets,  compared 
with  the  harsh,  indecent,  and  too  often  profane  language  of  this 
church  dignitary.  Passing  over  the  Dean's  tory  principles,  we 
cannot  but  remark  his  severe  denunciations  of  the  Dissenters 
as  people  unworthy  the  blessings  of  liberty.  Beside,  his  mang- 
ling satire  marks  him  out  as  a  literary  savage  ;  so  much  so, 
that,  although  he  wrote  in  favor  of  the  court  and  of  the  church, 
his  sovereign  was  ashamed  to  make  him  a  bishop.  Still  Swift 
was  caressed,  praised,  flattered,  and  feared,  from  the  throne 
down  through  the  peerage  and  all  the  high  offices  of  state. 
Compare  the  severest  satires  of  this  son  of  the  church,  with 
those  of  Junius,  on  the  score  of  decorum,  and  be  silent  on  the 
topic  of  invectives. 

Making  due  allowance  for  the  restraining  rules  of  both 
Houses  of  Parliament,  we  shall  find  that  Lord  Chatham  was 
not  far  behind  Junius  in  bitter  sarcasms  and  envenomed  wit. 
The  style  and  spirit  of  their  invectives,  and  the  subjects  and  ob- 
jects, are  very  similar.  The  Earl  of  Chatham  wzs  but  a  young 
member  of  ParHament  when  he  castigated  Mr.  Walpole,  then 
an  old  man,  in  so  resentful  a  style  as  to  kindle  the  ire  of  some 
of  the  most  respectable  gentlemen  of  the  House  of  Commons. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     183 

Nor  did  he  always  spare  his  old  schoolfellow  and  friend,  Hen-^ 
ry  Fox,  Lord  Holland.  We  adduce  these  instances  to  meet 
the  objection  of  some  who  contend,  that  Junius  is  too  bitter, 
too  extremely  severe,  to  allow  us  to  believe,  that  the  polite 
Lord  Chatham  could  be  the  writer  of  the  Letters  in  question. 
Moreover  does  the  language  of  the  man  in  a  mask  exceed  in 
harshness  that  used  between  the  Parliament  and  the  royalists  in 
the  time  of  Charles  the  First.  Junius,  be  sure,  has  sharper 
points,  because  he  had  more  wit  than  the  Covenanters  ;  and  if 
he  cut  deeper  than  Swift,  it  was  because  his  weapon  was  higher 
pohshed  and  better  tempered.  Furthermore,  does  the  severest 
language  of  Junius  surpass,  or  equal,  that  of  the  two  cele- 
brated Fathers  of  the  Protestant  Church,  Martin  Luther  and 
John  Calvin  ?  It  is  the  superior  wit  and  the  refined  talent  of 
the  Englishman,  which  convey  the  idea  of  greater  severity 
than  that  used  by  the  German  or  the  French  reformer.  Nay, 
farther  still, — when  holy  men  of  old  received  a  divine  com- 
mand to  operate  a  certain  end,  the  phraseology  was  their  own. 
Hence  the  gloomy  anger  of  one  Prophet,  and  the  horrid  denun- 
ciations of  another.  What  reason  have  w'e  for  saying,  that 
Ezekiel  had  more  malignity  of  heart  than  Isaiah  ?  Lord  Chat- 
ham was  distinguished,  above  ev^ery  speaker  in  Parliament, 
for  severity  of  remark,  or  what  Hume  Campbell,  unluckily, 
called  "  eternal  invectives."  Yet  was  this  nobleman  of  a  very 
friendly,  kind,  and  affectionate  temper  in  his  family,  and  great- 
ly beloved  by  all  about  him  ;  and  common  observation  informs 
us,  that  he  who  is  most  remarkable  for  coj)ia  verboriim  is  the 
most  apt,  when  excited,  to  use  the  sharpest  diction. 

Some  have  said,  that  the  accomphshed  Earl  of  Chatham, 
venerable  for  a  rare  assemblage  of  extraordinary  virtues  and 
talents,  a  nobleman  in  whom  the  world  beheld  honor  personi- 
fied, would  be  restrained  by  the  offspring  of  them  all, — grati- 
tude for  his  hereditary  coronet,  and  four  thousand  a  year. 
This  argument  is  more  specious  than  solid.  They  who  shud- 
der at  the  chafed  feelings  of  George  the  Third,  from  truths  ut- 
tered by  Junius  (for  falsehoods  cannot  disturb  a  wise  and  good 


184  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

man),  should  recollect  the  personal  anguish  of  Charles  the 
First,  Louis  the  Sixteenth,  and  the  Emperor  Napoleon.* 

As  to  Lord  Chatham's  gratitude  towards  his  Sovereign, — 
in  which  scale  was  the  heaviest  weight  of  obligation  ?  We  re- 
iterate the  question  ;  What  were  the  national  services  of  the 
Duke  of  Marlborough,  compared  with  those  of  Chatham,  who 
did  more  injury  to  the  enemies  of  Great  Britain  in  four  years, 
than  Marlborough  did  in  ten  ?  After  all,  what  is  political 
gratitude  ?  Let  us  learn  wisdom  from  the  example  of  history  ; 
and  turn  to  Plutarch,  a  great  master  in  that  school  of  phi- 
losophy. 

From  him  we  learn,  that  Marcus  Brutus  was  mild  in  his 
temper,  with  a  greatness  of  mind  that  was  superior  to  anger, 
avarice,  and  the  love  of  pleasure  ;  f  firm  and  inflexible  in  his 
opinions,  and  zealous  in  every  pursuit  where  justice  and  honor 
were  concerned  ;  and  that  the  people  had  the  highest  opinion 
of  his  integrity  and  sincerity.  History  scarcely  affords  us  a 
stronger  instance  of  kindness,  partiahty,  and  affection  among 
great  men,  than  that  which  subsisted  between  Julius  Ccesar  and 
Marcus  Brutus.  Indeed,  the  great  intimacy  between  Caesar 
and  Servilia,  the  daughter  of  Cato  and  mother  of  Brutus, 
when  the  latter  was  born,  led  many  to  beheve,  that  he  might 
be  Caesar's  son.  When  Cassius  and  Brutus  were  candidates 
for  a  very  distinguished  prastorship,  Caesar  said, —  Cassius  has 
the  strongest  reason  in  his  favor,  but  Brutus  must  have  it. 

We  learn  farther,  from  the  same  writer,  that  it  was  generally 
beheved  that  Brutus  would  be  nominated  to  succeed  him  ;  for 
that,  when  Caesar  was  advised  to  beware  of  him,  he  laid  his 
hand  on  his  breast  and  said, — Do  not  you  think  that  Brutus 
will  wait  till  1  have  done  with  this  poor  body  ?  And  yet !  the 
beloved  Brutus,   ornamented  with  every  acquirement  that  phi- 

*  "  I  tell  you  with  positive  certainty,  that  our  gracious  [Sovereign] 
is  as  callous  as  a  stockfish  to  every  thing  but  the  reproach  of  cowardice. 
That  alone  is  able  to  set  the  humors  afloat.  After  a  paper  of  that  kind 
he  won't  eat  meat  for  a  week." — Junius  to  Woodfall. 

t  See  Langhorn's  Translat'on. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     185 

losophy,  rank,  and  reputation  could  give,  and  rich  in  the  affec- 
tion and  confidence  of  Ca3sar,  murdered  him  ! — his  benefac- 
tor and  friend,  and,  as  many  thought,  his  father. 

If  we  have,  by  this  historical  fact,  removed  the  stumbling- 
block  thrown  in  our  way,  respecting  the  ingratitude  of  Chat- 
ham, Plutarch  suppHed  both  the  fulcrum  and  the  lever.  He 
tells  us,  moreover,  that  the  condition  of  Rome  was  such, 
that  it  evidently  required  a  master  ',  that  Caesar  was  no  more 
than  a  tender  and  skilful  physician,  appointed  by  Providence 
to  heal  the  distempers  of  the  state.  Yet  Brutus,  who  must 
have  known  all  this,  murdered  him  ! — What  then  is  personal 
gratitude  in  the  heroic  heart  of  patriotism  ? 

Beside,  we  do  not,  we  cannot  beUeve,  that  Lord  Chatham 
ever  felt  bound  in  gratitude  and  affection  towards  the  young 
successor  of  George  the  Second.  He  tells  us,  in  plain  terms, 
that  he  deceived  him,  betrayed  him,  and,  what  is  never  for- 
given, duped  him.*  When  the  King  wrote  to  Lord  Chatham, 
while  sick  at  Hampstead,  soliciting  the  great  statesman's  ad- 
vice and  assistance,  the  proud  invalid,  by  returning  no  other 
than  a  verbal  answer,  might  have  felt  like  Diogenes,  when  he 
requested  Alexander  to  stand  out  of  the  sunshine, — that  is,  Do 
not  deprive  my  fleeting  soul  of  the  sunshine  of  its  own  reflec- 
tions ;  do  not  deprive  me  of  that  comfort  which  you  cannot 
give.  That  Chatham's  honors  "  had  been  dearly  earned," 
no  one  will  deny.  Look  at  the  history  of  his  labors,  and  the 
fruits  of  them  ;    and  see  who  gathered  these. 

By  what  strong  cords  of  gratitude  was  Brutus  bound  to 
Caesar  !  What  was  that  spirit  which  instigated  him  to  destroy 
the  life  of  his  best  friend  and  benefactor  ?  We  answer.  Pa- 
triotism. What  impelled  Junius  Brutus  first  to  scourge,  and 
then  to  put  to  death,  his  own  son  ?  Patriotism.  And  what 
moved  Chatham, — if  William  Pitt  and  Junius  be  one  and  the 
same  person, — to  destroy,  not  the  Ufe,  but  the  character  and 
influence  of  Grafton,  Bute,  Bedford,  and  Mansfield  ?     We 

*  Speech  in  the  House  of  Peers,  Marcli,  1770.  Sec  also  Wilkes's 
Letter  to  Junius,  Sept.  12,  1771,  in  WoodfaH's  Junius. 

24 


186  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

answer,  Patriotism.  And  what  animated  him,  not  to  murder 
the  British  Ccesar,  but  to  rouse  him,  alarm  him,  caution  and 
advise  him  to  ]-eturn  from  the  error  of  his  ways,  and  Hve  glo- 
riously in  tlie  hearts  of  his  people,  and  in  history.  His  lan- 
guage to  his  Sovereign  was  firm,  but  honest ;  severe,  yet 
studiously  respectful.  He  indeed  spoke  daggers,  but  used 
none  as  Brutus  did.  Had  Chatham,  under  the  shadow  of 
a  great  name,  been  detected  for  his  conduct  towards  his 
King  and  benefactor,  he  might  well  reply,  in  the  words  of 
Shakspeare's  Brutus, — "  If  there  be  any  dear  friend  of  Caesar's, 
and  that  friend  demand  why  Brutus  rose  against  Cffisar ; — this 
is  my  answer, — iN'ot  that  I  loved  Ccesar  less,  hut  that  1  loved 
England  moreJ''' 

One  word  more  on  the  subject  of  gratitude,  because  it  has 
been  the  bass-string  which  has  been  long  harped  upon  in  England 
and  in  America.     The  King  of  Britain  is  the  high  steward  of 
the  wealth  and  honors  of  the  realm  ;  and  it  is  his  duty  to  be- 
stow them  according  to  merit.      Public  servants  are  pubUc 
creditors ;  and  the  King  is   the  constituted  paymaster.     Sir 
JefFery  Amherst,  a  brave  and  meritorious   general,   who   com- 
pletely executed  in  this  country,  what  Lord  Chatham  planned 
in  England,   a  great  favorite  of  Mr.  Pitt  and  of  Junius,  was 
rewarded  by  a  peerage  and  pension ;  so  likewise  was  Sir  Guy 
Carlton,  Admiral  Nelson,  and  Lord  George  Germain.     Had 
the  King  raised  Pitt  to  a  Dukedom,  and  the  nation  built  him  a 
palace  equal  to  that  at  Woodstock,  would  it  have  been  too 
much  ?      We  in  these  regions   may  view  things   through   a 
cloud  of  ignorance  ;   but  the  inequality  of  rewards  appears 
strange  to  us.     One  general  sits  hours   quietly  and    silently 
on    horse-back,    while    the    troops    of  several  nations   entrap 
"  the  Lion  of  the  forest,''^   and  the  fortunate  commander  ob- 
tains for  it  the  highest  honors  Great  Britain  can   bestow  ; — 
honors  far  greater  than  those  bestowed  on  a  renowned  States- 
man, who  held  in  his  hand  the  balance  of  Europe,  and  the  peace 
of  the  world  ; — the  man  who,  by  his  capacious  mind,  stern 
virtue,  disinterestedness,  unwearied  industry,  and   patriotism 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     187 

that  never  faltered,  acquired  more  influence  and  control,  than 
Cardinal  Wolsey  with  all  his  riches,  host  of  servile  depend- 
ents, boundless  royal  favor,  and  every  aid  the  superstition  of 
the  day  could  afford.  And  yet  Chatham  was  comparatively 
poor  ;  and,  but  for  individual  private  bounty,  would  have  been 
really  so. 

If  you  compare  the  state  of  affairs  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
reign  of  the  Second  George  with  the  condition  of  things  in  the 
early  part  of  the  reign  of  his  grandson,  you  will  admit  that  the 
difference  was  enough  to  engender  disgust  in  the  breast  of  the 
prime  agent  of  the  nation's  former  glory.  The  retrospect  and 
the  prospect  must  have  made  an  equally  sad  impression.  He 
must  have  known  thoroughly  the  character  of  the  young  mon- 
arch in  all  its  unyielding  self-sufficiency,  from  his  pupilage  to  his 
accession  in  1761,  and  through  the  intervening  space  to  17G9. 

Conceive,  then,  a  veteran  Statesman,  a  very  well-studied 
philologist  and  consummate  orator,  determined  to  save  his 
country  from  farther  degradation  and  disgrace.  What  mode 
would  such  a  character  naturally  adopt  ?  Not  that  of  a  formal 
audience  with  a  mother-ruled  King,  when  he  would  have  been 
treated  with  every  external  token  of  profound  respect  and 
sign  of  deference,  but  with  a  fixed  resolution  not  to  follow  his 
advice,  or  pay  any  regard  to  his  warnings.  Would  he  con- 
tinue his  solemn  and  pathetic  expostulations  in  the  House 
of  Peers  ?  He  knew,  alas  !  that  House  too  well.  Would 
he  address  the  people  through  the  medium  of  the  press, 
adding  to  it  tlie  weight  of  his  own  great  name  ?  Assuredly 
not ;  for,  ever  since  George  the  Third  came  to  the  throne,  a 
variety  of  means  had  been  used  to  depreciate  Lord  Chatham's 
wisdom,  lessen  his  worth,  detract  from  his  merit,  defame  his 
high  character,  and  misrepresent  his  motives  and  ultimate 
views.*  It  appears  from  the  daily  publications  of  those  times, 
that  every  contrivance  which  mahce,  jealousy,  fear,   revenge, 


*  When  Dr.  Johnson  submitted  certain  partisan  essays  to  Lord 
JVorth,  there  was  this  sentence,  whicli  his  Lordship  erased  from  the 
manuscript, — "  Perhaps  the  Americans  would  like  a  King  William." 


188  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

and  female  spite  could  devise,  or  bribery  effectuate,  was 
called  into  requisition  to  destroy  the  influence  of  the  great 
Statesman.  Rumor,  swelled  by  spies  prowling  around  his  hab- 
itation, represented  the  great  man  with  unstrung  nerves,  and 
every  faculty  prostrated  by  paroxysms  resembling  hysterics,  in 
which  he  would  weep  Hke  a  child.  This  was  spread  so  far  and 
wide,  that  his  famous  contemporary  and  great  admirer,  the  re- 
nowned Frederic,  King  of  Prussia,  has  mentioned  it  in  some 
of  his  letters.  All  this  is  possible ;  for  Lord  Chatham's  he- 
reditary disease,  joined  to  a  supervening  disorder,  and  his 
critical  period  of  hfe,  shook  his  susceptible  nervous  system, 
as  the  fever  shook  that  of  Julius  Ccesar  in  Spain  ; 

"  When  that  same  eye,  whose  bend  did  awe  the  world, 

Did  lose  his  lustre. 

Ay,  and  that  tongue  of  his,  that  bade  the  Romans 
Mark  him  and  write  his  speeches  in  their  books, 
Alas  !  it  cried,  Give  me  some  dnnk, — 
As  a  sick  girl." 

But  his  health  improving,  he,  to  the  surprise  of  many,  and 
the  sore  disappointment  of  some,  regained  his  former  vigor  of 
mind,  and  once  more  electrified  the  Senate.  When  that 
failed  to  have  the  desired  effect,  how  would  such  a  character, 
in  such  circumstances,  probably  conduct  ?  1  answer,  in  the 
very  mode  which  Junius  adopted, — A  fearful  hand-writing 
on  the  wall  of  the  palace,  rendered  doubly  impressive  by  its 
halo  of  mystery  ! 

We  of  Anglo-Saxon  descent  are  more  or  less  superstitious. 
Generally  speaking,  superstition  agitates  less  powerfully  minds 
moderately  gifted,  and  of  ordinary  information.  It  operates,  I 
had  almost  said  incubates,  upon  the  extremes  of  the  human  intel- 
lect ; — I  mean  poetical  genius  and  ignorance.  One  hair's 
breadth  beyond  the  circumference  of  the  circle  of  each  man's 
knowledge  leaves  him  on  the  vertiginous  border  of  the  dark 
ocean  of  superstition,  where  the  giddy  and  bewildered  imagi- 
nation floats  in  a  boundless  sea  of  uncertainty,  without  sun,  star, 
compass,  or  anchor,  or  any  means  of  determining  his  latitude  or 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     189 

longitude.  Such  is  restless  superstition  !  In  a  cloud  ambiguous, 
in  a  vapor  from  such  a  troubled  ocean,  was  enveloped  Juni- 
us, who,  like  the  ghost  of  the  King  of  Denmark,  adds  terror 
to  his  sepulchral  voice. 

Now  I  question  if  human  judgment  could  have  devised  a 
more  effectual  method  of  rousing  a  deluded  monarch,  influ- 
encing and  influenced  by  a  secret,  irresponsible  cabinet,  and 
losing  rapidly  the  confidence  of  his  people,  than  that  startling 
exhibition  of  flaming  Letters,  reflected  on  the  interior  walls  of 
his  palace,  by  an  Unknown  being. 

A  steady  and  uniform  opinion,  long  since  imbibed,  has  rivet- 
ted  in  my  mind  the  belief,  that  those  solemn  warnings  were 
written  by  the  hand  of  William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham. 
Nor  have  I  once,  during  fifty  years,  been  able  to  dissociate  the 
idea.  I  contend,  that  the  hypothesis  suits  that  nobleman,  and 
fits  no  other  personage  whatever  ;  and  the  more  I  have  pon- 
dered, inquired,  compared  and  balanced  one  thing  against 
another,  the  deeper  has  been  the  impression,  that  it  was  the 
powerful  voice  of  that  great  but  angry  Statesman,  which  sound- 
ed in  the  ears  of  the  King  and  resounded  through  the  nation, — 
"  Thou  hast  been  weighed  in  the  balance — and  found 
wanting  !   Thy  Kingdom  is  departing  from  thee  !  " 

A  prophecy,  long  since,  more  than  half  fulfilled  !  * 

It  seems  that  Mr.  Pitt,  disappointed  in  his  ruhng  passion, 
arms,  by  the  gout,  acted  like  a  wise  but  ill-favored  virgin,  who, 
conscious  that  she  could  not  attract  attention  by  her  personal 
charms,  resolves  to  make  up  the  defect  by  sedulous  cultiva- 
tion of  mind  and  behaviour.  So  Pitt,  when  forced  to  relin- 
quish the  fascinating  pomp  of  war,  redoubled  his  diligence  in 
disciplining  one  of  those  quick,  strong,  and  brilliant  intellects, 
to  whose  captivating  powers  we  give  the  name  of  genius.     A 

*  "  Their  declaration  gave  spirit  and  argument  to  the  colonies  ;  and 
while,  perhaps,  they  meant  no  more  than  the  ruin  of  a  minister,  they 
in  effect  divided  the  one  half  of  the  emjyire  from  the  other." — Junius, 
Letter  the  First. 


190  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

young  man  of  Mr.  Pitt's  lofty  spirit  and  military  cast  of  dispo- 
sition, who  could  read  regularly  Bailey's  Dictionary,  more  co- 
pious in  words  than  Johnson's,  twice  over,  and  who  could  dig 
in  Barrow's  quarry  for  materials  for  his  monument,  must  have 
had  a  brain  equal  to  any  task  his  judgment  chose  to  lay  upon 
it.  With  the  same  view  he  studied  not  only  Shakspeare  but 
Spenser.  Favored  with  a  muse  of  fire,  such  an  ardent  stu- 
dent must  have  considered  every  word  he  used  with  the  same 
attention  that  the  mathematician  does  a  figure.  He  was  adroit 
in  the  use  of  the  file  and  the  burnisher  without  weakening  the 
metal.  To  be  convinced  of  this,  compare  his  first  speeches  in 
Parliament  in  the  year  1736,  with  some  later  ones  ;  make  the 
same  comparison  with  the  Letters  of  Junius,  and  there  will 
be  found  in  each  a  progressive  improvement ;  so  true  is  that 
voice  of  antiquity  which  said, — The  gods  sell  every  thing  to 
Industry. 

Mr.  Pitt,  when  young,  associated  with  distinguished  men  older 
than  himself,  whence  he  imbibed  that  freedom  of  speech,  easy, 
unembarrassed  manner,  and  imposing  assurance,  which  made 
its  way  through  every  thing,  till  it  became  a  habit ;  and  what 
with  the  irritations  of  gout,  and  pressure  of  various  business, 
it  may  have  required  the  vigilance  of  that  dramatic  part  of  be- 
haviour, denominated  good  breeding,  to  make  it  bearable. 
Great  commanders  are  apt  to  acquire  a  reserved  demeanor, 
short  diction,  and  peremptory  tone.  To  a  noble  and  com- 
manding figure,  a  perfect  mastery  over  an  admirable  voice,  de- 
liberate and  collected  faculties,  was  added  a  ??z«nwer  peculiarly 
fascinating.  In  the  same  speech  he  would  descend  occasion- 
ally to  colloquial  familiarity,  and  rise  incidentally  to  epic  sub- 
limity. His  irony  was  strong,  provoking,  and  dignified,  his 
invectives  terrible,  and  his  ridicule  irresistible.  We  would  re- 
mark, however,  that  when  a  man  in  any  station  or  profession 
has  become  transcendently  eminent,  every  thing  he  says  elicits 
applause,  while  criticism  and  censure  stand  deaf,  dumb,  and 
blind.     Take  an  example. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.     191 

When  Mr.  Pitt's  brother-in-law,  the  Right  Hon.  George 
Grenville,  was  speaking  earnestly  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
he  not  only  raised  a  loud  laugh  at  his  expense,  but  actually 
fixed  upon  that  able  and  very  respectable  man  the  ridiculous 
appellation  of  "  the  Gentle  Shepherd."  The  occasion  was  no 
more  than  this.  There  was  a  very  popular  song  or  ditty,  bor- 
dering on  the  silly,  sung  everywhere, — in  the  theatres,  great 
and  small,  and  in  every  street  and  every  square  and  court  in 
London,  even  to  annoyance,  by  every  beggarly  ballad-singer 
and  kitchen-maid,  and  was  in  every  mouth  and  every  ear  ; 
the  chorus  to  every  stanza  was, — "  Where, — oh  ivhere, — Gentle 
Shepherd, — tell  me  where. ''^  Mr.  Grenville  was  speaking, 
solemnly,  of  the  discouraging  lack  of  money  for  a  certain  pur- 
pose then  under  debate,  when  he  exclaimed  oratorically, — 
"  Wliere  is  your  money, — where  are  your  means, — yes, — where, 
I  say,  is  your  money?"  and  then  sat  down  to  give  more  effect 
to  his  pathetic  question.  At  this  moment  IMr.  Pitt  hobbled 
slowly  out  of  the  House  with  his  flannels  and  crutches,  hum- 
ming the  tune, — "  Oh  ivhere, — Oh  Gentle  Shepherd !  tell  me 
where, — Oh  cohere  !  "  The  effect  was  instantaneous  and  elec- 
tric, and  the  tout  ensemble  was  irresistible.  The  House 
shook  with  laughter,  and  settled  for  ever  on  Mr.  George 
Grenville  the   appellation  of  "  the  Gentle  Shej>herd." 

This  mirthful  anecdote  shows,  better  than  a  long  disserta- 
tion, the  magical  ascendancy  of  Pitt  over  the  Parliament  of 
England.  JYapoleon,  in  all  his  power  and  glory,  had  hardly 
more  ascendancy  over  his  council,  than  the  illustrious  Com- 
moner over  the  British  Senate,  by  every  species  of  oratory, 
from  the  solemn  to  the  playful. 

One  anecdote  more.  Horace  Walpole,  afterwards  Lord 
Orford,  attended  a  "  caucus,"  held  at  the  Cockpit,  in  Novem- 
ber, 1755,  where  Mr.  Pitt  made  a  long  speech,  which  he 
thus  describes  ; — "  Pitt  surpassed  himself;  and  then  I  need 
not  tell  you  that  he  surpassed  Cicero  and  Demosthenes.  What 
a  figure  would  they,  with  their  formal,  labored,  cabinet  orations, 
make  vis-d-vis  his  manly  and  dashing  eloquence.     I  never  sus- 


J  92  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

pected  Pitt  of  such  an  universal  armoury.  I  knew  he  had  a 
Gorgon's  head,  composed  of  bayonets  and  pistols,  but  little 
thought  that  he  could  tickle  to  death  with  a  feather.  On  the 
first  debate  [on  the  Hanoverian  and  Russian  treaties],  Hume 
Campbell,  whom  the  Duke  of  Newcastle  has  retained  as  the 
most  abusive  council  he  could  find  against  Pitt,  attacked  him 
for  his  '  eternal  invectives.''  Oh  !  since  the  last  phillipic  of  Bil- 
lingsgate memory,  you  never  heard  such  an  invective  as  Pitt 
returned  !  Campbell  was  annihilated  !  Pitt,  like  an  angry 
wasp,  seems  to  have  left  his  sting  in  the  wound,  and  has  since 
assumed  a  style  of  delicate  ridicule  and  repartee.  But  think 
how  charming  a  ridicule  must  that  be  that  lasts,  and  rises, 
flash  after  flash,  for  an  hour  and  a  half !  " 

Now  such  an  ambidextrous  genius  could  write  any  thing, 
any  how,  of  any  body,  and  trust  posterity  with  his  reputation. 
On  one  occasion,  he  looked  Lord  Chief  Justice  Mansfield 
down  by  absolute  staring ;  and,  after  directing  all  eyes  on  the 
mild  dignity  of  that  great  man,  and  saying  that  he  should  use 
but  few  words,  but  those  should  be  daggers,  he  exclaimed,  in 
a  voice  of  thunder,  "  Judge  Felix  trembles  :  He  shall  hear 
from  me  some  other  day,^^ — and  sat  down.  Supposing  Chatham 
to  be  Junius,  can  we  wonder  at  his  bitter  invectives  in  print 
against  Mansfield,  after  reflecting  on  what  fell  from  his  lips  in 
Parliament  ? 

We  can  exhibit  Chatham's  thoughts  to  the  eye  upon  paper 
at  this  distance  of  time  and  space,  but  we  lose  his  manner. 
His  warm  admirers  have  said,*  You  should  have  seen  him,  that 
you  might  have  witnessed  "  the  terrors  of  his  beak  and  the 
lightnings  of  his  eye."  They  talk  too  of  his  angry  expression, 
and  look  of  ineffable  contempt,  and  say  that  he  sometimes  stared 
his  opponent  out  of  countenance, — then,  in  a  strong,  grand, 
and  thundering  voice,  poured  upon  the  abashed  subject  a  hot 
and  heavy  torrent  of  invective,  as  in  the  instance  just  men- 
tioned,   leaving    the    House    in    a   languor    of   amazement. 


*  Butler's  Reminiscences. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.  193 

Beside  the  awe-imposing  looks  of  Lord  Chatham,  we  hear  of 
his  fascinating  bow  of  condescending  protection.  Consum- 
mate orators  must  necessarily  be  complete  actors  ;  and  it  is 
said,  that  no  man  becomes  a  great  actor  on  the  stage  until  he 
has  surmounted  the  common  feelings  of  men,  and  put  his 
foot  upon  tender-heartedness.  Is  this  applicable  to  our  great 
Statesman  or  to  Junius  ?  It  has  been  remarked,  that  Lord 
Chatham's  commanding  eloquence  had  a  tendency  to  impress 
the  listener  with  a  something  more  to  be  dreaded  than  his  mere 
words,  that  the  man  was  greater  than  the  orator ;  whereas  in 
Burke  the  orator  appeared  greater  than  the  man.* 

I  am  at  a  loss  for  the  proper  epithet  to  designate  that  kind 
of  vituperative  oratory  in  which  Lord  Chatham  sometimes  in- 
dulged. I  venture,  however,  to  assert,  that  there  is  notlijng  in 
our  language  which  resembles  it  so  much  as  certain  portions  of 
the  Letters  of  Junius.  But  I  do  not  restrict  the  parallel  to  the 
raging  style  of  invective  ;  I  extend  the  observation  to  the  care- 
ful and  apparently  simple  diction  in  the  speeches  of  the  one, 
and  in  the  writings  of  the  other ; — simple,  select,  and  natural, 
like  the  exquisite  statuary  of  ancient  Greece,  it  is  less  striking 
at  first,  because  nearer  to  nature  than  the  art  of  the  moderns, 
and  never  tking  the  gaze  of  refined  taste. 

One  more  confirmatory  instance  of  the  effects  of  Pitt's  ora- 
tory, or  the  dread  of  it,  on  the  hardy  John  Wilkes,  who  men- 

*  Our  North  American  Indians  understand  this  perfectl}\  With 
faces  painted  to  frightfulness,  they  accompany  their  furious  orations 
in  their  treaty-councils  with  horrid  grimaces,  yells,  and  flourishes  of 
the  tomahawk,  to  make  an  impression  of  something  greater  than  reali- 
ty. I  should  like  to  have  seen  the  modern  Demosthenes  in  one  of  our 
American  assemblies,  wound  up  to  the  highest  pitch  of  his  oratorial 
powers,  vis-a-vis  James  Otis,  Samuel  or  John  Adams,  or  Patrick  Henry. 
Such  a  great  orator  might,  for  a  moment,  confuse  these  men,  but  never 
daunt  them.  I  doubt  if  such  hornbeam-fibred  men  as  those  pioneers 
of  our  revolution  would  have  been  daunted  by  "the  terrors  of  his  beak 
or  the  lightning  [of  his  eye."  If  great  admiration  be  a  suspension  of 
reason,  and  if  we  are  liable  sometimes  to  have  our  faculties  struck,  for 
a  moment,  into  undiscerning  amazement,  the  clastic  mind  of  true 
courage  soon  recovers,  and  acts  for  itself  in  its  own  defence. 
25 


194      CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

tioned  to  Reminiscent  Butler,  that,  once  when  Mr.  Pitt  rose 
and  began  to  speak  in  a  solemn  and  austere  manner,  he,  Mr. 
Wilkes,  expecting  a  castigation  for  a  conscious  fault,*  thought 
the  thunder  was  to  fall  upon  him  ;  and  he  declared  that  he 
never,  while  at  Westminster-school,  felt  greater  terror,  when 
called  up  to  be  chastised,  than  he  did  while  the  uncertainty 
lasted  ;  or  felt  greater  jubilation  when  he  was  pardoned,  than 
when  he  found  the  bolt  was  destined  for  another  head.  The 
like  awe-imposing  effect  was  experienced  by  Mr.  Wilkes  when 
he  approached  Junius,  though  a  curtain  intervened.  He 
stops  and  considers,  if  he  can,  without  profanation,  approach 
nearer  the  object  of  his  idolatry. 

The  celebrated  Lord  Chesterfield  bears  this  testimony  to 
the  superior  eloquence  of  Lord  Chatham.  "  He  was  haughty, 
imperious,  impatient  of  contradiction,  and  overbearing.  He 
had  manners  and  address ;  but  one  might  discern  throug^i 
them  too  great  a  consciousness  of  his  own  superior  talents. 
His  eloquence  was  of  every  kind.  His  invectives  terrible,  and 
uttered  with  such  energy  of  diction,  and  such  dignity  of  ac- 
tion and  countenance,  that  he  intimidated  those  who  were  the 
most  willing  and  the  best  able  to  encounter  him.  Their  arms 
fell  out  of  their  hands,  and  they  shrunk  under  the  ascendant 
which  his  genius  gained  over  them." 

It  was  in  the  year  1766,  that  Lord  Chatham  first  advocated 
in  Parliament  the  principles  of  our  resistance  to  their  assumed 
right  to  tax  these  unrepresented  colonies.  These  were  his  pa- 
thetic words, — "  When  the  resolution  was  taken  in  this  House 
to  tax  America,  I  was  in  bed.  If  I  could  have  endured  to 
have  been  carried  in  my  bed,  so  great  was  the  agitation  of  my 
mind  for  the  consequences,  I  would  have  soUcited  some  kind 
hand  to  have  laid  me  down  on  this  floor,  that  I  might  have 
borne  my  testimony  against  it."  He  doubtless  remembered 
the  stern  character  of  those  thoughtful  Englishmen,  who  quit- 
ted their  native  land  in  search  of  freedom,    and  found  it  in  a 

*  Bribing  the  captain  of  a  vessel  to  land  certain  London  voters  in 
Norway,  who  took  passage  for  Berwick,  where  they  meant  to  vote. 


CHARACTER  AND  DEATH  OF  THE  EARL  OF  CHATHAM.  195 

<iesert.  He  knew  that  such  men,  so  transplanted,  had  left 
sons  that  would  lesist  unto  blood,  and  if  so,  our  independence 
would  be  the  natural  consequence.  His  mind's  eye  saw  this  ; 
and,  courageous  as  he  was,  he  shuddered  at  the  prospect, 
believing  that  so  soon  as  Britain  and  America  became  seriously 
roused  to  internecine  combat,  vindictive  France  would,  by  siding 
with  us,  revenge  the  severe  blows  she  received  from  England, 
when  Pitt  directed  the  war  against  her.  Under  these  appre- 
hensions, the  great  Statesman  appeared  unhappy,  towards  the 
close  of  his  hfe,  and  his  utterance  perplexed,  as  if  halting  be- 
tween two  opinions,  when  the  cause  of  the  mother  country  and 
our  independence  vv^ere  subjects  of  debate.  The  supremacy 
of  Parliament  was  to  be  asserted,  yet  not  exercised.  He 
dreaded  the  revival  of  the  dangerous  question  of  taxation, 
"  which  ought,''^  to  use  the  words  of  Junius,  "  to  have  been 
buried  in  oblivion."     See  his  first  Letter. 

As  an  advocate  of  English  liberty,  according  to  the  standard 
erected  at  the  revolution  in  1688,  Lord  Chatham  rejoiced  at 
our  resistance,  since  our  enslavement  would  but  rivet  the 
chains  of  Englishmen  ;  as  our  alliance  with  France  would  pro- 
duce arrogant  triumphs,  and  possibly  revive  the  detestable 
maxim  of — Delenda  est  Carthago.  France  had  fought  Britain 
with  one  blade  only  of  the  shears  of  destruction.  Had  Ameri- 
ca joined  her  at  the  French  revolution,  and  acted  consenta- 
neously, Britain  would  probably  have  experienced  something 
like  a  second  French  subjugation  ;  and  the  two  rivetted  blades 
would  have  completed  the  shears  of  her  fate. 

Under  some  such  apprehension,  the  venerable  Seer  felt  as 
a  loyal  subject  and  true  Briton, — his  patriotism  strong  in 
death  ; — and  what  with  exhaustion  from  disease,  anxiety,  and 
conflicting  passions,  occasioned  by  some  imprudent  remarks 
in  the  course  of  debate  from  a  noble  Duke,  his  friend,  when 
he  rose  to  reply,  he  faltered,  and  sunk  fatally  under  a  con- 
fused idea  of  impending  evils,*  leaving  behind  him  a  glorious 
and  untainted  memory  !  This  was  in  the  House  of  Lords, 
in  the  year  one  thousand  seven  hundred  and  seventy-eight. 
*  Lord  Chatham  expired  at  his  own  home. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


CERTAIN  DIFFICULTIES  POINTED  OUT,  AND  DISCUSSED- 


Having  avowed  our  belief,  that  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham,  was 
the  author  of  the  Letters  under  the  signature  oi  Junius,  and 
given  a  sketch  of  his  hfe  and  character,  it  will  be  expected 
that  we  give  our  reasons  for  the  opinion.  We  acknowledge 
the  task  to  be  encumbered  with  serious  difficulties ;  yet  we 
venture  to  encounter  them,  and  should  we  fail,  we  would  rather 
lie  under  the  imputation  of  presumptuousness  than  cowardice. 

The  theme  has  exercised  cultivated  and  scrutinizing  minds, 
not  merely  as  a  question  of  amusing  curiosity,  but  as  involving 
the  history  of  the  greatest  men  of  the  age,  and  of  the  greatest 
event,  comprehending  principles  and  conduct  which  led,  not 
only  to  the  independence  of  these  English  colonies  on  Britain, 
but  the  separation  of  all  America  from  the  government  of 
Europe.  It  stops  not  here,  but  their  discussion  is  reflected 
back  upon  the  old  world  with  increased  light  and  warmth, 
changing,  as  it  proceeds,  the  crescent  to  a  full  orb,  operating 
beneficently  on  the  affairs  of  all  men.* 

Most  of  those,  who  have  gone  before  us,  had  made  their  attack 
by  a  coup-de-main  and  failed  ;  warned  by  their  discomfiture, 
we  proceed  slowly.     The  fortifications  we  are  about  to  recon- 


*  Mgiers,  a  kingdom  as  large  as  all  New  England,  has  just  sur- 
rendered to  enlightened  France  ;  and  the  Turkish  empire  trembles 
at  the  two-fold  power  that  surrounds  her. 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  197 

noitre  are  works  of  a  great  master, — a  Vauhan  in  the  art  of 
attack  and  defence.  No  one  has  circumvallated  and  entrench- 
ed himself  with  more  skill  and  caution  than  Junius.  He  has 
not  only  put  into  practice  every  known  art,  but  resorted  to  the 
most  refined  species  of  deception  ; — hence  we  pay  Httle  regard 
to  his  assertions  whenever  his  individual  safety  is  concerned. 

We  have  said  that  there  has  been  more  attention  directed  to 
the  dress  of  Junius,  than  to  his  person, — more  observance  of  his 
style  and  diction,  than  of  his  mind,  feelings,  rank,  and  condition. 
The  best  way  of  judging  of  the  soul  of  such  a  writer, — the  surest 
way  of  scanning  his  principles,  motives,  and  intentions,  would  be 
to  translate  his  writings  into  the  Dutch  language.  This  would 
be  to  strip  him  of  that  which  dazzles  the  eye,  and  diverts  atten- 
tion from  the  main  object.  It  would  be  changing  Junius's  ar- 
mour of  polished  steel  for  a  common  garb.  It  is  very  hard  to 
know  a  man  who  is  all  mind,  and  whose  primary  object  is  dis- 
guise and  concealment.  That  every  writer  of  genius  has  a 
style  and  manner  by  w^hich  he  is  known,  is,  in  a  great  measure, 
true  ;  so  every  man  has  a  natural  gait  and  gesture  ;  but  the 
drill-sergeant  and  the  dancing-master  alter  these  pecuharities 
for  the  exercise  of  the  field  and  the  ball-room,  where  disci- 
pline and  art  bridle  nature.  So  in  writing,  discipline  may  put 
on  a  habit  of  disguise,  provided  the  assumed  dress  be  inferior 
to  the  original  one.  But  whenever  the  individual  discusses  the 
same  subject,  at  one  time  as  a  ivriter,  and  at  another  as  an 
orator,  it  is  very  difficult  to  depart  from  his  natural  manner 
without  dishonoring  truth,  or  soiling  principle.  Now,  the  same 
determined  national  principles  run  through  the  writings  of  Ju- 
nius, which  shine  in  the  speeches  of  Lord  Chatham. 

That  such  a  writer  as  Junius  should  speak  in  a  public  as- 
sembly like  Chatham,  no  one  will  contend,  who  thinks  of  Ad- 
dison and  Gibbon ;  but  that  such  a  consummate  orator  as 
Chatham  should  be  able  to  write  hke  Junius,  few  will  deny. 
The  utmost  resolution,  in  the  first  case,  might  fail,  but  may  al- 
ways succeed  in  the  last.  The  most  accurate  engraver  of  the 
most  tasteful  and  beautiful  chirography  commonly  writes  worse 


198  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

than  other  men.  So  if  the  most  finished  orator  would  but  take 
the  pains,  he  could,  by  striving,  make  himself  an  equally  spirited 
and  pohshed  writer,  as  was  the  ambitious  Cicero  among  the  Ro- 
mans, and  Burke  among  the  Britons ; — Dii  lahoribus  omnia 
vendunt, — the  gods  do  not  give,  but  sell  every  thing  to  indus- 
try. Lord  Chatham  was  a  prodigy  of  industry.  It  is  said, 
that,  when  a  young  man,  he  read  Bailey's  Dictionary,  the 
best  then  extant,  regularly  through  twice,  and  that  he  com- 
mitted several  of  Dr.  Isaac  Barrow's  sermons  to»memory  for 
the  sake  of  their  energetic  diction.*  How  long  would  it  take 
such  a  genius  as  Chatham  to  acquire  a  knowledge  of  his 
native  tongue  equal  to  that  attained  by  an  inferior  star  in  the 
political  firmament  of  Britain,  John  Home  Tooke  ? 

Allowing  the  Earl  of  Chatham  to  have  been,  what  he  cer- 
tainly was,  a  pohshed  scholar,  of  transcendent  eloquence,  with 
a  rich  and  exhaustless  mine  of  political  information  and  ener- 
getic expressions,  can  it  not  be  conceived,  that  such  an  ex- 
perienced minister,  in  his  ho7'(E  solitariie,  could  give  to  epis- 
tles, or  short  essays,  the  strength  and  precision  of  Barrow,  with 
the  pencil  of  Milton,  and  yet  appear  hke  neither  of  them  ? 
Beside,  who  shall  set  bounds  to  the  combined  force  of  genius, 
judgment,  industry,  courage,  and  deep  resentment,  when  winged 
by  a  belief  of  the  danger  of  his  country  fast  rolling  to  the  brink 
of  a  precipice  ?  A  condition  of  things  enough  to  make  the 
dumb  speak.  Reflect,  reader,  on  the  case  before  us.  Orato- 
ry had  uttered  its  warning  voice  in  vain.  The  utmost  powers 
of  eloquence  had  failed.  The  love  of  country  was  ready  to 
resign  itself  to  despair. 

But  patriotism  rallied  and  took  a  new  stand,  resolved  to 
effect  by  the  Pen  what  the  transitory  pomp  of  declamation  had 
failed  to  accomplish.  To  wing  the  strongest  arguments  with 
the  bitterest  invectives  and  the  keenest  satire,  requires  some- 
thing more  than  the  breath  of  man.  It  requires  that  most 
potent  of  all  instruments,  the  Pen,  a  weapon  most  to  be  relied 

*  Butler's  Reminiscences. 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  199 

on  ;  and  not  the  less  so  if  the  hand  only  appears  upon  the 
wall,  while  the  body  to  which  it  belongs  is  invisible.* 

In  fixing  the  authorship  of  Junius  where  we  think  it  be- 
longs, we  calculated  on  encountering  great  difficulties, — very 
great  difficulues ;  and  we  have  met  what  we  expected.  The 
birth-place  of  Homer  has  never  been  ascertained  ;  yet  that 
mighty  genius  did  not  exert  his  extraordinary  powers,  and 
tax  his  ingenuity,  subtilty,  and  contrivance,  to  delude  the 
people,  and  lure  them  away  from  the  thing  sought,  as  Junius 
has  studiously  and  intently  done,  purposely  to  elude  our  search 
by  systematic  deception,  in  order  to  secure  himself  and  family 
from  destruction.  In  forming  such  a  resolution,  nay,  determi- 
nation, he  must  have  stipulated  with  his  conscience  respecting 
his  infringement  of  truth.  Instances  of  such  trespass  on  strict 
veracity  may  be  found  in  the  history  of  every  age  and  people, 
even  in  holy  history.  Abraham  denied  Sarah  to  be  his  wife  ; 
that  pattern  of  purity  and  a  good  conscience,  Joseph,  said  to 
his  brothers,  all  of  whom  he  knew, — "  By  the  life  of  King 
Pharaoh !  ye  are  spies,  come  to  see  the  nakedness  of  the 
land."  The  conduct  of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  in  his  inter- 
course with  the  king,  may  be  mentioned  ;  and  what  is  still 
stronger,  Peter,  the  patron  Saint  of  three  quarters  of  the  Chris- 
tian world,  w^ent  beyond  them  all  in  falsehood.  We  hope 
to  tread  this  holy  ground  with  caution  and  due  reverence. 
"  Skin  for  skin ;  all  that  a  man  hath  will  he  give  for  his 
life:^ 

Concerning  the  concealment  of  truth  from  those  who  have  no 
right  to  he  made  acquainted  ivith  it,  much  may  be  said.  He 
who  has  read  most  of  history  will  be  best  able  to  settle  the  point, 
when  we  say,  that  it  has  been  the  practice  of  some  of  the  most 

*  The  arrow,  the  most  potent  of  all  visible  weapons,  is  a  compound 
of  the  spear  and  the  feather, — the  pen  and  the  sn-ord ;  the  one  to  pierce 
the  hostile  invader,  the  other  to  direct  it  aright.  It  ought  to  have 
been  the  emblem,  or  ensign  armorial  of  tliese  United  States,  instead  of 
Jove's  solitary  bird  of  prey,  wljose  usual  residence  is  on  some  light- 
ning-blasted tree,  or  barren  rock  in  a  dreary  desert,  the  waste  of 
ages. 


200  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

distinguished  sovereigns,  ambassadors,  generals,  and  reformers,, 
in  all  ages,  to  witliliold  the  truth,  when  they  thought  prudence 
forbade  it  to  be  revealed  ;  and  this  has  been  called  wisdom. 

When  Junius  was  uttering  oracular  truths  from  behind  a 
curtain,  what  right  had  the  people,  or  the  law  itself,  to  demand 
his  name  or  see  his  person.  The  guilty  Assyrian  asked  the 
prophet  Daniel  only  the  meaning  of  the  terrific  hand-writing, 
and,  when  deeply  afflicted  by  the  prediction  of  the  calamities 
about  to  come  upon  his  kingdom,  he  demanded  not  the  sight 
of  the  person  who  inscribed  the  portentous  letters  on  the  walls 
of  his  palace.  So  George  the  Third  saw  only  the  hand,  with- 
out knowing  the  person  to  whom  it  belonged,  and  disbeheved 
the  prediction,  until  Time  and  History  gave  the  interpretation. 

It  is  an  equally  arduous  and  ungrateful  task  to  vindicate  the 
use  of  equivocation,  and  evasion  of  truth,  by  a  man  of  otherwise 
unimpeached  integrity,  and  possessing  a  high  sense  of  honor .^ 
Very  rigid  moralists,  bookish  men  of  the  closet,  secluded  from 
the  world,  say,  that  an  honest  man  dares  no  more  look  a  false- 
hood, than  utter  one.  But  stratagem,  the  sublime  part  of  the 
art  of  war,  what  is  it  other  than  to  deceive  ? — to  hold  up  an 
appearance  of  something  which  is  not  intended,  while  under 
that  mask  some  important  object  is  secured  ?  The  best  and 
greatest  men  of  diis  country,  and  of  others,  have  added  to  their 
renown  by  practising  it. 

From  subterfuges  like  those  just  mentioned,  the  main  diffi- 
culties attending  our  determination  of  the  person  of  Junius 
arise ;  and  were  they  absolutely  inconsistent  with  that  high  and 
honorable  character  which  we  attribute  to  him,  our  researches 
would  be  at  an  end.  But  even  should  it  be  impossible  to  vin- 
dicate such  practices  in  for o  divino,  may  we  not  apologize  and 
extenuate  them  when  speaking  from  man  to  his  fellow-man  ? 
Do  not  we  find  every  day,  that  fear  of  personal  harm,  loss  of 
property,  and  dread  of  public  shame,  induce  a  majority  of  the 
people,  and  not  a  small  one,  to  go  beyond  evasion  even  to  a 
flat  denial  ?  Our  very  laws  coiyitenance  it  in  the  plea  of 
"  not  guilty.^^      Nor  is  such  conduct  ever  made  a  question 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  oqI 

when  a  man  has  to  do  with  a  highwayman,  a  pirate,  or  a  mur- 
derer. Fortunately  we  have  a  competent  judge  of  the  very 
point  at  issue,  in  the  great  Enghsh  raorahst,  Samuel  Johnson, 
which  we  give  in  the  following  dialogue  between  that  great 
man  and  his  devoted  disciple,  Bosivell..  "  Supposing,  Sir, 
the  person  who  wrote  Junius  were  asked  whether  he  was  the 
author,  might  he  deny  it  ?  " — Johnson.  "  I  don't  know  what 
to  say  to  this.  If  you  were  sure  that  he  wrote  Junius,  would 
you,  if  he  denied  it,  think  as  well  of  him  afterwards  ?  Yet  it 
may  be  urged,  that  when  a  man  has  no  right  to  ask,  you  may 
refuse  to  communicate  ;  and  there  is  no  other  effectual  mode 
of  preserving  a  secret,  the  discovery  of  which  may  be  very 
hurtful  to  you,  but  aflat  denial;  for  if  you  are  silent,  or  hesi- 
tate, or  evade,  it  will  be  held  equivalent  to  a  confession.  But 
stay ;  here  is  another  case.  Supposing  the  author  had  told 
me  confidentially,  that  he  had  written  Junius,  and  I  were  ask- 
ed if  he  had,  I  should  hold  myself  at  liberty  to  deny  it,  as  be- 
ing under  a  previous  promise,  expressed  or  implied,  to  conceal 
it.  Now,  what  I  ought  to  do  for  the  author,  may  I  not  do 
for  myself  "i  "  * 

Junius  had  the  confidence  to  say  to  his  printer, — "  Be  as^^ 
sured,  that  it  is  not,  in  the  nature  of  things,  that  they,  or  you, 
or  any  body  else,  should  ever  know  me,  unless  I  make  myself 
known.  All  arts,  or  inquiries,  or  rewards,  would  be  equally 
ineffectual."  We  are  therefore  prepared  to  doubt,  if  not  de- 
ny, any  assertion  or  insinuation  concerning  himself,  because  he 

*  I  should  wish  to  know  what  the  strict  followers  of  George  Fox 
and  William  Pcnn  would  have  said  to  Samuel  Johnson^s  case  of  con- 
science. The  Earl  of  Chatham  said,  in  the  House  of  Peers,  in  1770, — 
"  I  do  not  say,  my  Lords,  that  corruption  lies  here,  or  that  corruption 
lies  there ;  but,  if  any  gentleman  in  England  were  to  ask  mo,  wliether 
I  thought  both  Houses  of  Parliament  were  bribed,  I  sliould  laugh  in 
his  face  and  say, — ^ Sir,  it  is  not  so  ! '"  Does  the  laugh  sanctify  the 
falsehood  ;  or  might  the  Peer,  who  ^'■on  honor''s  cap  is  the  very  button^''  \ 
Jitter  words  contrary  to  what  he  knew  luas  the  truth. 

t  Shakspearo. 
?6 


202  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

Starts  fair  with  the  public,  and  says,  in  pretty  plain  terms, — I  wilT,. 
by  every  means  in  my  power,  conceal  myself.  I  am  the  sole 
DEPOSITORY  OF  MY  OWN  SECRET.  We  removc  this  bold  asser- 
tion at  once,  by  pronouncing  the  thing  to  be  impossible  in  the 
nature  of  things,  and  we  shall  prove  it  by  his  own  words,  un- 
less the  grave  had  closed  upon  his  scribes  and  copyists  before 
he  wrote  his  Dedication. 

When  such  an  eminent  personage,  as  the  one  we  suppose 
to  be  the  author  of  the  Letters,  exalted  above  his  peers  by 
force  of  superior  and  varied  talents,  had  resolved  to  address, 
anonymously,  the  King,  the  Parliament,  and  the  people  of 
England  ;  to  reprehend  one,  to  reprove  and  reproach  the  oth- 
ers ;  to  assail  with  the  keenest  satire  and  the  sharpest  invectives 
certain  obnoxious  individuals  in  high  stations,  his  first,  his  chief- 
est  care  must  have  been  that  of  his  own  security, — absolute  and 
perfect  concealment  of  his  person.  He  knew  that  every  thing, 
character,  usefulness,  influence,  and  even  existence,  depended 
on  impenetrable  concealment.*  It  was  necessary  this  con- 
cealment should  extend,  not  merely  to  the  external  evidence^ 
as  the  hand-writing  and  the  transmission  of  the  letters,  but  to 
the  internal  evidence  that  might  be  gathered  from  style,  man- 
ner, facts,  and  sentiments,  communicated  in  them.  If  discov- 
ery might  not  have  been  fatal  to  his  existence,  prosecution  and 
conviction  of  hbel  might  have  been  utterly  destructive  of  his 
fame,  fortune,  influence,  and  happiness.  He  must  have  con- 
sidered well  the  thin  partition  which  divides  great  fame  from  the 
deepest  misfortune  in  kings  and  prime  ministers.  While  de- 
liberating on  his  plan,  he  must  have  weighed  his  own  powers  and 
means,  before  pre-determination  took  a  step,  and  have  been  wide 
awake  to  every  probable  and  possible  danger  of  discovery. 
He  must  have  premised  never  to  utter  a  word  that  might  direct 
attention  to  his  person,  excite  suspicion  of  his  rank,  or  en- 
courage a  guess  of  his  pecuhar  character  or  station  beyond 
that  of  marked  respectahiUty,  which  he   could  not  conceal. 

*  "  I  am  sure  I  should  not  survive  the  discovery  three  days." — Junius. 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  203 

Above  all,  he  must  have  presumed  on  his  power  of  diverting 
the  prying  eye  of  curiosity  in  such  a  city  as  London,  which  he 
knew  would  be  very  busy  in  hunting  out  his  personality.  To 
obviate  this  great  danger  he  must  have  agreed  with  his  con- 
science not  to  boggle  at  evasions  and  deceptions  and  denials  ; 
bestowing,  at  the  same  time,  on  himself,  a  harmless  sneer, 
grounded  on  his  age  or  morbid  infirmity,  and  dropping  now  and 
then  a  seemingly  careless,  though  deeply  studied  phrase  or 
sentence  of  commendation  and  respect,  all  calculated  to  divert 
the  mind  of  the  reader  from  the  real  object  of  the  nation's  cu- 
riosity and  the  court's  vengeance.  Examples  of  this  may  be 
seen  here  and  there  in  the  Letters  of  Junius  relative  to  the 
venerable  Chatham,  which,  though  sarcastic,  are  softened 
down  by  degrees,  until  they  end  in  a  remarkable  strain  of 
panegyric. 

This  conduct  is  neither  strange  nor  unwarrantable.    All  ani- 
mated nature  has  more  or  less  of  it. 

O  thou  Goddess ! 

Thou  divine  nature ! 


that  teachest  the  sitting  or  nursing  panridge  never  to  rise  from 
directly  over  her  nest,  but  to  run  creeping  along  in  the  grass 
to  some  distance  from  it,  before  she  exposes  herself  on  the 
wing.  She  as  instinctively  stops  her  flight  at  as  remote  a 
distance  from  her  nest,  and  returns  to  it  under  the  cover  of  the 
herbage. 

"  'T  is  wonderful, 

That  an  invisible  instinct  should  frame  them 
To  protection  unlearn'd, — safety  untaught ; 
Security  not  seen  from  others." 
Next  to  mere  instinct,  and  very  like  it,  comes  the  wiliness 
of  the  savage  of  our  forests  in  his  war  with  white  men,  whom 
he   seldom   fails  to  circumvent  or  elude.     It  is  situation,  cir- 
cumstances, and  necessity,  that  excite  mind,  muscle,   and  in- 
stinct, to  self-preservation.     Within  the  circle  of  the  idea  here 
started,  what  manifold  subterfuges,  lures,  resources,  refined  de- 
ceptions, and  juggling  might  be  practised  by  one  of  the  ablest, 
most  indefatigable,  best  informed,  prompt,  and  most  sapient 


204  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

of  the  sons  of  men, — all  sense,  all  intellect, — a  general,  a  sen- 
tinel, an  orator,  a  consummate  politician,  a  juggler,  a  spirit  pres- 
ent in  every  department,  and  acquainted  with  all  the  opera- 
tions of  the  body  politic,  and  its  limbs  diplomatic, — a  man  in 
whom  decrepitude  of  body  sharpened  his  mental  and  instinc- 
tive faculties,  always  on  the  stretch  till  he  became  more  than  a 
match  for  any  other  man.  Such  a  man  alone  could  have  been 
the  author  of  the  Letters,  and  been  able,  during  the  long 
course  of  three  years,  to  have  transmitted  them,  and  corres- 
ponded with  the  printer  of  them,  undetected. 

Assuming  that  Junius  and  Lord  Chatham  were  the  same, 
we  meet,  in  the  first  letter,  a  passage  that  appears,  at  the  first 
blush  of  the  business,  fatal  to  our  hypothesis.     It  follows. 

"  When  Mr.  Grenville  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Treasu-- 
ry,  he  felt  the  impossibility  of  Great  Britain's  supporting  such 
an  establishment  as  her  former  successes  had  made  indispen- 
sable, and,  at  the  same  time,  of  giving  any  sensible  relief  to 
foreign  trade  and  to  the  weight  of  the  public  debt.  He  thought 
It  equitable,  that  those  of  the  empire,  who  had  been  benefited 
most  by  the  expenses  of  the  war,  should  contribute  something 
to  the  expenses  of  the  peace  ;  and  he  had  no  doubt  of  the  con- 
stitutional right  vested  in  Parliament  to  raise  the  contribu- 
tion. 

"  But,"  says  Junius,  "  unfortunately  for  this  country,  Mr. 
Grenville  was,  at  any  rate,  to  be  distressed  because  he  was 
minister  ;  and  Mr.  Pitt  and  Lord  Camden  were  to  be  the 
patrons  of  America,  because  they  were  in  opposition.  Their 
declawttion  gave  spirit  and  argument  to  the  colonies,  and  while, 
perhaps  they  meant  no  more  than  the  ruin  of  a  minister,  they, 
in  effect,  divided  one  half  of  the  empire  from  the  other." 

This  is  a  profound  and  labored  paragraph,  with  an  insinua- 
tion, which  the  writer  tried  to  abet  by  adding  thereto  a  note  in 
these  words, — "  Yet  Junius  has  been  called  the  partisan  of 
Lord  Chatham,.'''' 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  205 

Place  yourself,  reader,  in  the  situation  of  Junius,  actuated 
by  all  those  views  he  manifestly  entertained  ;  possessing  a  fund 
of  information  respecting  the  court  and  the  government,  so 
minute  and  extensive^  as  none  but  an  e^iperienced  courtier  could 
have  accumulated  5  projecting  a  series  of  Letters  to  his  coun- 
trymen, instilling  principles  of  civil  liberty,  and  the  necessity 
of  restraining  the  royal  prerogative,  as  well  as  effecting  a  gene- 
ral reform,  which  alone  Junius  seemed  to  think  could  save 
the  empire  from  ruin  ;  uniting  at  once  talents  of  the  highest 
order,  with  an  indifference  to  office  and  emolument,  which 
his  very  concealment  makes  unquestionable  ;  and  very  proba- 
bly feehng  sore  by  a  sense  of  injury  from  the  monarch, 
and  insults  from  his  interior,  irresponsible  cabinet.  Let  the 
reader,  I  say,  thus  substantiating  the  shadoiv,  ask  himself, —  Who 
is  the  man  most  likely  to  be  charged  with  this  hand-ivriting  on 
the  wall  ?  If  what  we  have  said  has  any  weight,  the  answer 
will  be  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  and  he  alone.  What  other 
man  had  his  provocations  ?  Moreover,  who,  beside  him,  had 
the  knowledge  discoverable  in  these  Letters  ?  Who  had  the 
honor  and  glory  of  Old  England  more  at  heart  ?  And,  which 
is  not  the  weakest  argument,  who  had  that  Demosthenical  elo- 
quence for  exposing  all  these  things,  so  glowing  in  the  pages 
of  Junius,  but  he  who  transcended  all  others  for  that  "  supe- 
rior genius  which  animates  and  directs  him  to  eloquence  in  de- 
bate, and  wisdom  in  decision." 

What  then  must  the  man  in  the  visor  do,  if  he  really  be 
Chatham  himself?  He  must  commence  his  operations  by 
warding  off  a  blow,  which  might  be  destructive  to  his  whole 
plan  in  all  its  ramifications.  No  means  to  accomplish  this  end 
could  be  more  effectual,  than  severity  of  remark  upon  himself, 
even  to  abuse,  and  upon  his  dear  friend,  Lord  Camden.  Ac- 
cordingly, to  the  high-minded  Lord  Chatham,  and  to  that  pil- 
lar of  the  constitution.  Earl  Camden,  Junius  attributes,  in  the 
words  already  cited,  a  spirit  of  vulgar  and  mean  opposition, 
bent,  wickedly  bent,  on  the  ruin  of  a  minister,  though  it  should 
cost  half  of  an  empire  !     What  a  diabolical  spirit  must  have 


206  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

entered  the  hearts  of  those  eminent  men,  were  the  accusation 
true  !  We  shall  prove  hereafter,  that  Junius  himself  did  not 
believe  it. 

After  this,  what  reader,  but  of  the  most  scrutinizing  class, 
would  even  suspect,  that  this  foul  accuser,  Junius,  and  Lord 
Chatham,  were  one  and  the  same  person.  Bear  in  mind, 
reader,  that  his  settled  purpose  was  to  deceive  the  multitude 
as  it  regarded  himself ;  and  to  the  multitude,  without  distinc- 
tion of  rank  and  condition,  did  he  write,  and  in  a  style  the 
most  studied  and  peculiar.  The  deep  deception  marked  the 
master  spirit,  and  its  efficacy  was  complete. 

If  we  examine  the  deep  reproach  itself,  which  is  indeed  con- 
tumelious, could  the  accusation  have  been  sincere  ?  Certainly 
not.  Junius  well  knew  that  odium  could  not  attach  itself  to 
either  of  those  illustrious  Peers.  Did  the  opposition  of  Lord 
Chatham  and  of  Lord  Camden  to  the  measure  of  Mr.  Gren- 
ville  "in  effect  divide  one  half  of  the  empire  from  the  other  ".^ 
Junius  knew  better.  We,  Americans,  know  better,  and  ab- 
solve them  from  the  charge,  and  Junius  from  the  folly  of  be- 
lieving it. 

It  is  also  worthy  of  remark,  that  Junius  denounces  the  con- 
duct of  Chatham  and  Camden,  while  he  himself  scarcely  wrote 
a  sentence  that  was  not  pregnant  with  the  same  spirit  which, 
at  that  time,  pervaded  the  speeches  of  those  two  venerable 
Statesmen.  His  invective  could  not  have  been  sincere,  since 
the  abuse  is  equally  applicable  to  himself;  nay,  it  is  at  perfect 
variance  with  the  high,  the  very  high  applause  which  he  be- 
stows on  both  of  them  ',  on  Lord  Chatham  in  his  Fifty-fourth 
Letter,  and  upon  Lord  Camden,  in  his  solemn,  valedictory  ad- 
dress, when  he  appears  to  drop  his  mantle  on  him,  enjoining 
him  to  sacrifice,  in  the  Temple  of  Justice,  the  victim,  Mans- 
field, whom  he  had  dragged  bound  to  her  altar. 

It  is  furthermore  remarkable,  how  cautiously  Junius  pre- 
pares his  reader  to  receive  gradually  his'  high  eulogy  of  Lord 
Chatham,  by  saying,  in  the  same  letter, — "  It  is  not  in  the  ht- 
tle  censure  of  Mr.  Home,  to  deter  me  from  doing  signal  jus- 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  207 

tice  to  a  man  who,  /  confess,  has  grown  upon  my  esteem." 
Can  any  one  conceive  that  a  character  hke  that  of  Pitt,  Earl  of 
Chatham,  renowned  to  celebrity,  famous  through  the  reign  of 
George  the  Second,  and  firmly  established  throughout  the  civil- 
ized world  before  Junius  began  to  write,  could  grow  so  fast  in 
his  esteem,  as  that,  within  the  short  space  of  two  years,  from 
being  the  wretch, — yes,  the  wretch,  who  could  divide  one  half 
of  the  empire  from  the  other  merely  to  ruin  a  minister,  should 
deserve, — we  use  the  very  words  of  Junius, — that  "  recorded 
honors  should  gather  round  his  monument  and  thicken  over 
him  "  ;  furthermore,  that  these  praises  he  bestowed  upon  him 
"  would  wear  well,  for  they  had  been  dearly  earned.''^ 

We  intreat  the  reader  to  ponder  these  things. 

We  shall  treat  this  high  but  singular  panegyric,  professedly 
in  its  proper  place,  and  only  observe,  in  passing,  that  Junius 
says  in  the  Fifty-fourth  Letter,  just  cited,  "  I  am  willing  enough 
to  suppose,  that,  in  public  affairs,  it  would  be  impossible  to  de- 
sert or  betray  Lord  Chatham  without  doing  an  essential  injury 
to  this  country."  And  he  speaks  of  Saville,  Richmond,  Cam- 
den and  Chatham,  as  fathers  of  their  church  and  objects  of 
political  worship.  Weighing  and  considering  these  things,  can 
we  believe,  that  the  denunciatory  passage,  cited  from  the  first 
Letter  of  Junius,  had  its  foundation  in  truth  and  sincerity  ? 
Or  was  it  throwing  sand  in  the  eyes  of  the  pursuer  ? 

Nor  is  it  altogether  unworthy  of  notice,  that,  in  the  same 
very  weighty  paragraph,  the  able  writer  glances  at  "  Britain's 
former  successes,''''  which  he  could  not  but  know  were  attrib- 
utable to  the  glorious  administration  of  the  very  man  who  was 
mean  enough,  base  enough,  to  risk  the  integrity  of  the  em- 
pire, if  he  could  but  pull  down  a  minister,  and  that  minisier, 
the  Right  Hon.  George  Grenville,  the  brother-in-law  of  Lord 
Chatham. 

Junius  has  been  studied  like  an  academic  model,  from  va- 
rious points  of  view,  but  not  from  every  point.  We,  at  this 
distance,  may  view  him  from  a  point  in  the  circle  of  artists,  but 
slightly  attended  to  in  Britain,  if  not  wholly  neglected.     To 


208  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

my  own  eye  it  appears,  that,  if  insincerity  was  ever  made  out 
against  any  man,  we  have  demonstrated  this  accusation  against 
Lords  Chatham  and  Camden  to  be  insincere.  We  view  it  as 
one  of  those  blinds  or  lures,  practised  by  Junius,  to  divert 
attention  from  his  person  at  his  first  setting  out. 

Having  surmounted  one  difficulty,  we  are  met  by  another, 
yet  are  we  not  discouraged ;  and  though  we  may  not  remove 
it,  we  will  try,  encouraged  with  the  hope  of  coming  to  level 
ground  again. 

The  Right  Hon.  George  Grenville  had  quoted  a  passage 
from  Blackstone's  Commentaries,  which  directly  contradict- 
ed the  doctrine  maintained  by  that  celebrated  lawyer  in  the 
House  of  Commons.  Sir  William  Blackstone  was,  at  that 
time,  solicitor-general  to  the  Queen.  He  was  touched  so 
painfully  by  the  incident,  that  he  wrote  a  pamphlet  in  defence 
of  his  reputation  in  the  "  insipid  form  of  a  third  person,"  which, 
occasioned  Junius  to  address  him.  And  he  says  to  him„ 
"  Your  pamphlet  then  is  divided  into  an  attack  on  Mr.  Gren- 
ville's  character,  and  a  defence  of  your  own.  It  is  not  my 
design  to  enter  into  a  formal  vindication  of  Mr.  Grenville  upon 
his  own  principles.  /  have  neither  the  honor  of  being  person-' 
ally  known  to  him,  nor  do  I  pretend  to  he  completely  master  of 
the  facts. ^^ 

The  rest  of  the  letter  is  principally  employed  in  vindicating 
Mr.  Grenville's  character  and  conduct  against  the  attack  of 
Blackstone,  and  in  clearing  it  from  every  stain  of  blame,  but  is 
little  connected  with  our  present  object,  except  as  it  leads  us  to 
remark  the  friendly  solicitude  of  Junius  for  the  honor  of  that 
indefatigable  minister  and  worthy  man ;  *  and  to  notice  a  short 

*  "  Mr.  Grenville  was,  above  all  men,  the  declared  favorite  of  Junius. 
He  never  censured  him,  but  embraced  every  occasion  of  defending  and 
extolling  his  conduct  and  principles,  and  therefore  must  have  known 
him." — From  a  pleasant  work  by  E.  H.  Barker,  Esq.  that  has  just  come 
to  my  hands.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Thackeray  says,  of  all  the  members  of 
the  Grenville  family,  Mr.  Pitt  ever  distinguished  the  elder  brother  bj? 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  209 

passage,  viz. — "  You  are  a  lawyer,  Sir,  and  know  better  than 
I  do,  upon  ivhat  particular  occasions  a  talent  for  misrepresenta- 
tion may  be  fairly  exerted.'' 

Is  it  probable,  is  it  credible,  that  Junius,  conversant,  be- 
yond all  doubt,  in  courts,  cabinets,  palaces,  and  parliaments, 
acquainted  with  offices  in  every  department  of  government, 
could  be  unknowing  of,  and  unknown  to,  the  Right.  Hon.  George 
Grenville,  who,  in  Junius's  day,  had  been  Prime  Minister,  and, 
for  a  long  time,  a  leader  in  the  House  of  Commons.  Our 
author,  a  master-spirit,  who  appears  to  know  every  body  else 
of  distinction,  pretends  that  he  and  Mr.  Grenville  are  unknown 
to  each  other  !  Speaking  severely  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  he 
says,  "  My  abhorrence  of  the  Duke  arises  from  an  intimate 
knowledge  of  his  character."  He  knew,  it  seems,  minutely, 
the  character  of  Mr.  Wilkes,  and  Sawbridge,  and  all  the  Dii 
minorum  gentium,  as  well  as  the  majorum,  and  of  him,  who  is 
too  exalted  to  be  cited, — and  yet  had  no  acquaintance  with  a 
man,  who  occupied  so  large  a  space  in  his  own  and  in  the  pub- 
lic estimation  ;  a  gentleman,  whose  name  and  political  charac- 
ter, as  the  reputed  father  of  the  American  stamp-act,  is  well 
known  in  this  country. 

Now,  if  Junius  and  Chatham  were  one  and  the  same  per- 
son, we  perceive  at  once  the  delicacy  of  acknowledging  ac- 
quaintance with  Mr.  Grenville  and  his  brother  Lord  Temple, 
the  latter  of  whom,  though  a  noble  whig  and  of  great  influ- 
ence, is  never  once  mentioned  by  Junius.  Mr.  Grenville's 
subserviency  to  the  sovereign's  strong  wishes  respecting  an 
American  revenue,  and  particularly  the  stamp-act,  needed  ex- 
planation, palliation,  and  extenuation,  to  the  people  of  both 
hemispheres  ;  and  Junius  did  not  neglect  it.  He  speaks,  in  his 
Fifteenth  Letter,  of  "  the  shrewd,  inflexible  judgment  of  Mr. 
Grenville,  and  the  mild,  but  determined  integrity  of  Lord 
Rockingham."      And   in   a  note   to   the    younger  Woodfall's 

the  most  cordial  attachment ;  but  he  was  inferior  to  his  brother  George, 
both  in  judgment  and  agplication. 

27 


210      CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

edition,  the  editor  remarks,  that — "  The  warm  attachment  of 
Junius  to  every  part  of  the  conduct  of  this  distinguished 
Statesman  [George  Grenville],  may,  perhaps,  import  some- 
thing more  than  a  mere  political  concurrence  of  sentiment,  and 
indicate  an  ardent  personal  friendship." 

Taking  it  for  granted,  and  I  cannot  believe  otherwise,  that 
the  author  of  the  Letters  in  question  was  known  to  Mr.  Gren- 
ville, let  us  see  if  we  can  possibly  clear  him  from  the  impu- 
tation of  uttering. a  deliberate  falsehood  with  intent  to  deceive. 
He  might  whisper  to  his  conscience,  that  he  meant,  '  not 
known  to  Mr.  Grenville  as  Junius  ' ;  implying  his,  Mr.  Gren- 
ville's,  not  partaking  the  secret.  We  go  one  step  farther,  and 
crave  permission,  in  this  difficulty,  to  recur  to  the  primitive 
meaning  of  the  words  person  and  personally ;  for  in  this  the 
stress  lies  5 — a  word  that  will  bear  the  strain  of  interpreting  it 
to  denote  the  assumed  character,  and  not  the  proper  person^ 
— the  visor  or  mask,  under  which  Junius  might  allow  him- 
self to  say,  '  I  have  not  the  honor  of  being  personally  known 
to  him  in  my  visor  and  complete  armour,  with  only  this  in- 
scription on  my  shield,  Stat  nominis  umbra.''  May  it  not  bear 
this  fair  construction  ?  '  I,  being  personatus,  that  is,  disguised 
in  my  helmet,  like  an  ancient  knight,  engaged  in  redressing 
Wrongs,  have  not,  in  consequence  of  it,  the  honor  of  being 
known  to  him,  although  he  is  very  well  known  to  me.'  Some 
may  think,  that  this  is  picking  the  strands  of  a  Jesuitical 
rope  to  its  primitive  oakum  ;  yet  if  there  be  any  thing  respect- 
able in  this  argument, — if  it  be  not  absolutely  trifling,  then  it 
will  follow,  that  there  is  not  a  positive  denial,  but  an  equivoque, 
subservient  to  his  plan,  and  rendered  necessary  to  the  vital 
secret,  on  which  depended  more  than  the  writer's  life.  I  have 
a  right  to  consider  this  equivoque  a  device  subordinate  to  his 
plan,  because  Junius  is  remarkable  for  planning.  In  a  private 
letter  Mr.  Wilkes  complained  piteously  of  his  too  severe  cas- 
tigation  of  him  in  the  year  1769;  when  he  said  soothingly  to 
him, — "  Think  no  more  of  what  is  past.  You  did  not  then 
stand  so  well  in  my  opinion ;  and  it  was  necessary  to  the  plan 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  211 

of  that  letter  to  rate  you  lower  than  you  deserved  "  ;    that  is, 
variant  from  the  truth. 

In  trying  to  remove  this  second  difficulty  we  would  remark, 
that  few  people  consider  the  power  of  internal  evidence. 
The  multitude  look  for  the  highest  degree  of  proof,  for  ab- 
solute certainty,  in  such  a  world  as  this.  There  is  in  nature  a 
strong  evidence  of  things  not  seen.  But  I  cannot  do  better, 
in  illustrating  this  subject,  than  use  the  words  of  Junius  himself. 

"  I  still  maintain,  that  tlie  conduct  of  this  minister  carries 
with  it  an  internal  and  convincing  evidence  against  him.  Sir 
William  Draper  seems  not  to  know  the  value  or  force  of  such 
a  proof.  He  will  not  permit  us  to  judge  of  the  motives  of 
men  by  the  manifest  tendency  of  their  actions,  nor  by  the  no- 
torious character  of  their  minds.  He  calls  for  papers  and 
witnesses  whh  a  triumphant  security,  as  if  nothing  could  be 
true,  but  what  could  be  proved  in  a  court  of  justice.  Yet  a 
religious  man  might  have  remembered  upon  what  foundation 
some  truths,  most  interesting  to  mankind,  have  been  received 
and  established.  If  it  were  not  for  the  intertial  evidence 
which  the  purest  of  religions  carries  with  it,  wdiat  would  have 
become  of  his  once  well-quoted  decalogue,  and  of  the  meek- 
ness of  his  Christianity."  * 

We  would  apply  lliis  exposition  of  the  force  of  internal  evi- 
dence to  what  we  have  already  said,  and  may  yet  say,  in  the 
course  of  our  search  after  a  powerful  being  who  had  deter- 
mined on  concealment ;  and  shall  only  remark  here,  that  no 
man  in  London,  of  general  information  on  the  subjects  we  have 
discussed,  could  behevc,  that  the  writer  of  the  Letters  of  Ju- 
nius and  Mr.  George  Grenville  were  unknown  to  each  other  in 
the  ordinary  intercourse  of  persons  of  the  same  rank  in  socie- 
ty with  Junius.  To  the  force  of  this  kind  of  evidence  we 
confidently  appeal. 

There  is  yet  a  third  diffictdty, — another  lure  thrown  out  to 
divert  the  keen  pursuer  after  the  person  of  Junius.     I  mean 

*  Letter  xxvii. 


213  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

the  celebrated  eulogy  recorded  in  the  Fifty-fourth  Letter  of 
the  collection.  It  was  the  first  thing  which  impressed  strongly 
upon  my  mind,  that  Lord  Chatham  was  in  reality  Junius  him- 
self, and  that  full  fifty  years  ago.  Licreasing  time  has  not  di- 
minished the  idea,  but  strengthened  it,  hke  the  bias  of  insanity. 

The  wise  and  wary  Junius  overshot  himself,  when  he, 
through  misinformation  or  conjecture,  accused  the  Rev.  John 
Horne  of  treachery  to  his  party.  Home's  misfortune  was  an 
overweening  self-sufficiency  and  a  jealousy  of  his  compatriots, 
particularly  of  Wilkes,  who,  he  thought,  monopolized  popu- 
larity. It  never  appeared  that  Mr.  Horne  contemplated  to 
desert  to  the  enemy  with  his  arms,  as  Junius  seems  to  insinu- 
ate ;  but  he  was  considered  the  Marplot  of  every  party  to 
which  he  belonged,  and  Junius  aimed  to  check  and  confound 
him  without  offending  his  friends.  Home's  ready  and  correct 
pen  was  valuable  to  the  city  patriots,  who  were  more  men  of 
business  than  of  letters.  He  was  very  active  in  getting  up  and 
maintaining  the  Society  for  the  Support  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  ; 
yet  he  divided  and  set  at  variance  those  members  of  it,  who, 
like  himself,  envied  Wilkes  his  gainful  patriotism.  John  Horne 
was  a  bustling,  overbearing  man,  who  deserted,  in  a  great 
measure,  his  clerical  duties  to  scuffle  with  politicians,  and  he 
suffered  accordingly.  This  learned  gentleman,  since  better 
known  by  the  agnomen  of  Tooke,  beside  constitutional  intre- 
pidity, had  a  clear  and  logical  head,  with  no  small  portion  of 
*'  John-Bullery  "  ;  but  no  party  had  entire  con^dence  in  him. 
That  we  may  not  be  even  suspected  of  uncharitableness  to- 
wards an  eminent  literary  character,  we  shall  exhibit  his  se 
ipse  pinxit  picture. 

In  1766,  he  writes  from  Montpeher  to  his  friend  John 
Wilkes,  Esq.,  at  Paris,  thus, — "  You  are  now  entering  into  a 
correspondence  with  a  parson,  and  I  am  greatly  apprehensive, 
lest  that  title  should  disgust ;  but  give  me  leave  to  assure  you, 
I  am  not  ordained  a  hypocrite.  It  is  true,  I  have  suffered 
the  infectious  hand  of  a  bishop  to  be  waved  over  me,  whose 
imposition,  hke  the  sop  given  to  Judas,  is  only  a  signal  for  the 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  21  ^ 

devil  to  enter."  That  he  could  put  off  the  clergyman  and 
put  it  on  again,  alternately,  with  his  clothes,  in  England  and  in 
France,  is  evident  by  the  following  short  letter  to  his  friend 
Wilkes,  in  1767. 

"  Dear  Sir, — According  to  your  permission,  I  leave  with 
you  one  suit  of  scarlet  and  gold  ;  one  suit  of  white  and  silver 
cloth  ;  one  suit  of  blue  and  silver  cambist ;  one  suit  of  flow- 
ered silk  ;  one  suit  of  black  silk  ;  one  black  velvet  surtout.  If 
you  have  any  fellow-feeling,  you  cannot  but  be  kind  to  them  ; 
since  they  too,  as  well  as  yourself,  are  out-lawed  in  England, 
and  on  the  same  account, — their  superior  worth. 

I  am  he.  he.  JOHN  HORNE."  * 

That  the  sagacity  of  Junius  should  induce  him  to  suspect  a 
man  of  this  sort  is  not  to  be  wondered  at. 

Partial  as  we  may  be  to  the  heroic  Junius,  we  must  never- 
theless confess,  that  he  ran  upon  a  snag  when  he  attacked 
Home  ;  f  who  appears,  in  one  instance,  to  have   pierced   the 

*  Home  says  to  Junius, — "  You  brought  a  positive  charge  against 
me  of  corruption.  I  denied  the  charge,  and  called  for  your  proofs. 
You  replied  with  abuse,  and  re-asserted  your  charge.  I  called  again 
for  proofs.  You  reply  again  with  abuse  only,  and  drop  your  accusa- 
tion. In  your  fortnight's  Letter  there  is  not  one  word  upon  the  sub- 
ject of  my  corruption." 

Junius  was  evidently  mistaken.  But  what  was  the  reply  of  the 
rough,  unpolished  Home  to  Junius  ? — You  told  a  deliherate  lie. 

This  is  the  wound  given  to  the  ghost  of  a  great  man,  which 
afforded  such  supreme  delight  to  all  it  had  terrified  ! 

\  In  ihe  Mississippi,  the  father  of  rivers  and  the  Nile  of  America, 
tlie  never-ceasing  current  wears  aWay  its  soft  banks,  and  undermining 
large  trees,  carries  them  down  the  stream,  where  they  sometimes 
gather  in  an  everlasting  tangle,  laying  the  foundation  of  new  islands ; 
or  else  a  tree  sticks  fast  by  its  roots  in  the  bottom  of  the  river,  and 
whips  one  way  and  the  other,  according  to  the  eddies,  when  it  is  called 
a  sawyer ;  or  else  it  gets  a  firm  position  by  its  roots  against  some  oth- 
er unseen  body,  with  its  limbs  and  largest  branches  opposed  to  the 
current,  forming  a  species  of  ahattis,  with  its  sharp  ends  projecting  un- 
■der  water.  These  are  called  S7iags.  Without  experienced  and  adroit 
pilots  and  great  caution,  boats  are  liable  to  run  with  force  against 
these    subaquatic    chevaux-de-frise,   so    as    to    pierce    through    their 


214  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

valorous  knight  between  the  joints  of  his  harness,  so  that  he 
writhed  under  it,  and  wrote  him  a  private  letter,  ungraciously 
apologetical,  containing  somewhat  of  abuse,  yet,  however,  a 
permission  to  publish  it  if  he  thought  it  would  benefit  him. 
Home,  as  if  he  saw  a  flash  of  immortality,  gave  it  publicity, 
accompanied  vAih  a  well  written,  Jesuitical  reply  ;  which  de- 
lighted the  court,  as  evidence  of  divisions  in  the  councils  and 
forces  of  the  city-patriots.  He  reaped  an  abundant  crop  of 
reputation  from  this  rencontre,  the  more  from  the  delight  which 
most  people  take  in  seeing  a  notorious  satirist  satirized.  Still 
he  gives  a  token  of  the  highest  respect  for  the  unknown  writer, 
by  wishing  this  line  of  Junius  for  his  epitaph,  viz.  "  Hornets 
situation  did  not  correspond  with  his  intentions  "  ;  although  a 
perversion  of  the  writer's  meaning. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  Lord  Chatham. 

Mr.  Home's  Letter  of  the  thirty-first  of  July,  1771,  con- 
tained some  passages  that  must  have  nettled,  if  not  mortified 
Lord  Chatham,  the  more  so  as  coming  from  a  professed  ad- 
mirer. It  places  that  great  man  in  a  somewhat  humiliating 
situation  before  the  public.  He  says  of  him, — "  When  Lord 
Chatham  can  forgive  the  awkward  situation,  in  which,  for  the 
sake  of  the  public,  he  was  designedly  placed  by  the  thanks  to 
him  from  the  city,"  he.  Again, — "  Because  Lord  Chatham 
has  been  ill  treated  by  the  King,  and  treacherously  betrayed 
by  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  the  latter  is  to  be  the  pillow  on 
which  Junius  will  rest  his  resentment."  Here  Mr.  Home  in- 
cidentally notices  the  sympathy  between  Lord  Chatham  and 
the  man  in  the  mask,  and  proceeds  thus, — "  I  understand  the 
two  great  leaders  of  opposition   to  be   Lord  Rockingham  and 

planks,  when  they  are  either  held  fast,  or  sink  at  once.  Rapid 
steam-boats  have,  now  and  then,  been  sunk,  before  the  baggage  of 
the  passengers  could  be  removed.  Sometimes,  as  it  was  with  Jum'w*, 
the  damage  is  not  so  serious  ;  but  enough  to  inspire  the  navigator  with 
more  caution  in  his  steerage,  and  a  sharper  look-out,  under  water  as 
well  as  above  it.  Whether,  in  his  attack  upon  Home  Tooke,  he  did 
not  run  foul  of  a  Snag  is  left  to  the  judgment  of  the  reader. 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  215 

Lord  Chatham ;  under  one  of  whose  banners,  all  the  opposing 
members  of  both  Houses,  who  desire  to  get  places,  enlist. 
I  can  place  no  confidence  in  either  of  them." — "  The  mo- 
tive, which  dictated  the  thanks  of  the  city  to  Lord  Chatham, 
was  for  his  declaration  in  favor  of  short  Parliaments,  in  order 
thereby  to  fix  Lord  Chatham,  at  least,  to  that  one  constitution- 
al remedy,  without  which  all  others  can  afford  no  security. 
The  embarrassment,  no  doubt,  was  cruel.  He  had  his  choice, 
either  to  offend  the  Rockingham  party,  who  declared  formally 
against  short  Parliaments,  and  with  the  assistance  of  whose 
numbers  in  both  Houses  he  must  expect  again  to  be  minister  ; 
or  to  give  up  the  confidence  of  the  public,  from  whom  finally 
all  real  consequence  must  proceed.  Lord  Chatham  chose  the 
latter ;  and  I  will  venture  to  say,  that,  by  his  answer  to  those 
thanks,  he  has  given  up  the  people,  without  gaining  the  friend- 
ship or  cordial  assistance  of  the  Rockingham  faction."  This 
language  from  Mr.  Home  must  have  nettled  Lord  Chatham, 
inasmuch  as  it  was  a  narrative  of  facts  malignantly  represented. 

It  may  be  needful  to  say  to  the  American  reader,  that  the 
city-of-London  Patriots,  mere  mercantile  politicians,  required 
of  the  lofty  and  high-minded  Earl  of  Chatham,  a  hand-and- 
seal  promise  to  a  specific  plan  of  reform,  like  the  instructions 
of  some  of  our  towns  to  their  members  of  Congress,  should  he, 
by  their  influence,  return  again  to  the  high  office  of  Prime 
Minister.  It  related  to  the  question  of  short  and  long  Parlia- 
ments. On  Lord  Chatham's  declining  this  counting-house 
negotiation,  Mr.  Home  accuses  him,  tauntingly,  of  evasion, 
and  abandonment  of  his  principles,  and  attempts  to  hold  him 
up  in  a  point  of  view  bordering  on  derision. 

We  notice  the  circumstance,  to  show  the  extreme  solicitude 
of  Junius  on  the  occasion.  The  public  waited,  with  impa- 
tience, for  his  reply,  which  appeared  in  a  fortnight  after,  in 
which  he  said, — "  I  understand  that  the  public  are  not  satis- 
fied with  my  silence  ;  and  that,  if  I  persist  in  refusing  to  plead, 
it  will  be  taken  for  conviction." 


216  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

It  is,  on  the  wliole,  a  curious  Letter,  and  not  free  from 
symptoms  of  soreness,  anxiety,  and  embarrassment.  He  says, 
whiningly, — "  Is  there  no  merit  in  dedicating  my  hfe  to  the 
information  of  my  fellow-subjects  ?  What  public  question  have 
I  declined,  what  villain  have  I  spared  ?  Is  there  no  labor  in 
the  composition  of  these  letters?  " 

The    uneasiness    of  Junius,    at   that    time,    is    perceptible 
throughout  his  Letter  [LIV.   addressed  to  the  Printer   of  the 
Public  Advertiser,  August  15,  1771],  and  makes  it  worthy  of 
particular  notice.     He  says  in  it, — "  It  seems  I  am  .a  partisan 
of  the  great  leader  of  the  opposition.     If  the  charge  had  been 
a  reproach,   it  should   have  been  better  supported.     I  did  not 
intend  to  make  a  public  declaration  of  the  respect  I  bear  Lord 
Chatham.     I  well  knew  what  unworthy  conclusions  would  be 
drawn  from  it.     But  I  am  called  upon  to  deliver  my  opinion  j 
and  surely  it  is  not  in  the  litde  censure  of  Mr.  Home  to  deter 
me   from   doing  signal  justice  to   a   man,  who,  I  confess,  has 
grown  upon  my  esteem.     As  for  the  common,  sordid  views  of 
avarice,  or  any  purpose  of  vidgar  ambition,  I  question  whether 
the  applause  o/"  Junius  would  be  of  service  to  Lord  Chatham.. 
My  vote  will  hardly  recommend  him  to  an  increase  of  his  pension, 
or  to  a  seat   in   the   cabinet.     But  if  his    ambition  he  upon  a 
level  with  his  understanding  ;    if  he   judges   of  what   is  truly 
honorable  for  himself  loith  the  same  superior  genius  which  ani- 
mates and   directs  him  to   eloquence  in   debate,  to  wisdom  in 
decision,  even  the  pen  of  Junius  shall  contribute  to  reward 
him.     Recorded  honors  shall  gather  round  his  monument,  and 
thicken  over  him.     It  is  a  solid  fabric,  and  ivill  support  the 
laurels  that  adorn  it.     I  am  not  conversant  in  the  language  of 
panegyric.     These  praises  are  extorted  from  me;  hut  they  will 
wear  well,  for  they  have  been  dearly  earned.'''' 

This  is  a  very  singular  production  from  beginning  to  end. 
Its  singularity  or  circumstantiality  is  such,  that  scarcely  two 
readers  put  exactly  the  same  construction  on  it.  Mr.  Heron, 
one  of  the  commentators  on  Junius,  remarks,  that  his  author 
"  suffered  himself  here  to  be  betrayed  into  the  burlesque,  ia 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  217 

talking  of  laurels,  even  in  figure,  as  if  there  were  danger  that 
the  weight  of  theai  might  crush  a  funeral  monument ;  and  that 
the  praise  was  artfully  contrived  to  show,  that  Junius  was  not 
Lord  Chathani's  creature.''''  Mr.  Wilkes  received  several  very 
interesting  private  letters  from  the  unknown  Junius.  He  and 
his  friend,  the  Reminiscent  Butler,  amused  themselves  a  con- 
siderable .time  in  trying  to  find  out  the  author.  Together  they 
reviewed,  considered,  and  pondered  the  famous  Letters  with 
great  attention,  sifting  the  anecdotes,  weighing  all  the  opinions, 
and  comparing  the  various  conjectures  ;  and  finished  in  despair. 
When  they  came  to  this  high-wrought  panegyric  on  Lord 
Chatham,  they  concluded  it  to  be  ironical.  Nor  do  I  much 
wonder  at  their  perplexity.  Let  any  one  try,  as  I  have 
done,  to  translate  it  into  Latin  or  French,  and  its  oddness  will 
induce  him  to  think,  that  it  is  somewhat  like  a  finely  polished 
knot  of  some  very  hard  cabinet-wood,  in  which  the  beauty  con- 
sists in  its  gnarly  intricacy,  and  the  cross-grained  entanglement 
of  its  fibres,  defying  anatomy,  yet  altogether  beautiful.  Let 
others  try  their  hand  at  it,  and  speak  the  result.  To  my 
own  mind  it  looks  as  if  it  had  been,  at  first,  a  lengthy  eu- 
logy, of  which  three  fourths  have  been  erased,  leaving  a  mere 
fragment  of  the  original  structure.  This  extorted  praise  appears 
to  me,  not  so  much  the  sentiment  of  an  observer,  as  the  awk- 
ward and  embarrassed  production  of  a  conscious  autographist, 
hesitating  under  misgivings  at  every  stroke  of  his  pen.  It  ap- 
pears, moreover,  to  me,  that  it  was  drawn  out  of  Lord  Chat- 
ham, by  Home  Tooke's  ungracious  letter,  placing  his  Lord- 
ship in  a  painfully  awkward  position  ;  and  that  this  strange  enco- 
mium helped  him  to  change  his  uneasy  posture.  Beside,  the 
passage  here  commented  on  seems  not  a  free  and  easy  pro- 
duction. Junius  appears  to  go  out  of  his  way  to  lug  in  his 
esteemed  nobleman  ;  not  to  abuse  him,  as  in  his  first  Letter, 
but  to  heap  upon  him  a  load  of  panegyric  in  one  point  of  view, 
and  clumsy,  niggardly  praise  in  another.  He  adds,  what  had 
better  been  left  out,  that  this  well-earned  praise,  and  these 
dear-bought  recorded  honors,  are  extorted  from  him. 
28 


2 1  8  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

May  1  repeat  it,  that  this  delusive  eulogy  was  among  the 
first,  the  very  first  passages  in  the  Letters,  which  roused  my 
suspicion,  that  Junius  was  in  fact  Lord  Chatham,  nor  have  the 
revolving  years  of  half  a  century  diminished  the  early  im- 
pression.     So  far  from  it, — crescit  eundo. 

That  the  great  Earl  of  Chatham  should  bestow  praises  upon 
himself,  anonymously,  is  a  small  obstacle  in  our  w§y.  The 
great  Roman  orator  and  patriot  praised  himself  without  any 
hesitation.  Other  great  men  have  resorted  to  self-commenda- 
tion, when  forced  to  reply  and  defend  themselves  against  dan- 
gerous enemies.  St.  Paul  did  it  without  scruple  ;  and  Junius 
confessedly  availed  himself  of  this  license,  when,  under  the 
signature  of  Philo-Junius,  he  magnifies  himself,  and  smooths 
it  over  in  the  preface  to  his  own  edition  of  the  Letters,  in  these 
words, — "  But  the  subordinate  character  is  never  guilty  of  the 
indecorum  of  praising  his  principal.  The  fraud  was  innocent, 
and  I  always  intended  to  explain  it." 

If  the  language  of  Junius,  in  the  passage  cited,  go  beyond 
what  Chatham  could,  with  real  modesty,  have  uttered  of  him- 
self in  public^  I  see  little  or  nothing  in  those  laudatory  ex- 
pressions, which  consciousness  of  desert,  in  a  mind  equally 
above  vanity  and  hypocrisy,  in  the  need  of  defence,  might 
not  have  forced  him  to  write  under  the  shadow  of  a  name. 

Lord  Chatham,  like  Cicero,  knew  his  own  character  in  the 
opinion  of  the  world  ;  and  he,  as  Junius,  had  only  to  give  a 
chaste  sketch  of  it.  Junius  says,  in  his  Fifteenth  Letter, — 
"  The  advice  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  country  has  been  re- 
peatedly called  for  and  rejected  ;  and  when  the  royal  dis- 
pleasure has  been  signified  to  a  minister,  the  marks  of  it  have 
usually  been  proportioned  to  his  abilities  and  integrity," — writ- 
ten doubtless  to  make  the  reader  think  of  Lord  Chatham  with- 
out naming  him,  as  any  other  writer  naturally  would  have  done. 
What  smoothness  and  delicacy  shine  forth,  now  and  then,  amid 
the  acute  angles  of  satirical  resentment ! 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  219 

A  writer  in  the  Edinburgh  Review  for  June,  1 826,  Article 
Icon  Basilike,  says,  that  "  a  simple  test  ascertains  the  politi- 
cal connexion  of  Junius,  the  only  circumstance  which  he 
could  not  disguise,  because  it  could  not  be  concealed  without 
defeating  his  general  purpose  ;  that  he  supported  the  cause  of 
authority  against  America  with  Mr.  Grenville,  the  minister 
who  passed  the  stamp-act ;  and  that  he  maintained  the  high- 
est popular  principles  on  the  ]Middlesex  election  with  the  same 
statesman,  who  was  the  leader  of  opposition  on  that  question  ; 
that  no  other  party  in  the  kingdom,  but  the  Grenvilles',  com- 
bined these  two  opinions."  And  he  adds, — "  Whoever  re- 
vives the  inquiry,  respecting  the  authorship  of  Junius,  should 
show  him  to  be  politically  attached  to  the  Grenville  party, 
which  Junius  certainly  was." 

On  this  presumed  agreement  we  differ  widely  from  the  re- 
viewer. The  doctrine  of  the  authority  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment over  America  was  generally  popular  throughout  England 
at  the  commencement  of  the  dispute ;  and  even  with  a  great 
many  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  But  we  deny  that  Junius 
was  an  advocate  for  the  unqualified  authority  of  the  Parliament 
over  the  colonies.  In  his  first  and  justly  celebrated  Letter, 
January  21,  1769,  after  speaking  honorably  of  Mr.  Grenville 
at  the  beginning  of  it,  he  adds,  before  the  close,  these  rather 
taunting  expressions, — "  Under  one  administration  the  stamp- 
act  is  made  ;  under  the  second  it  is  repealed  ;  under  the  third, 
in  spite  of  all  experience,  a  new  mode  of  taxing  the  colonies 
is  invented,  and  a  question  revived  xohich  ought  to  have  been 
buried  in  oblivion.^''  Here  Junius  and  Mr.  George  Grenville 
by  no  means  accord.  He  then  mentions  the  appointment  of 
the  Earl  of  Hillsborough  to  the  new  office  of  Secretary  of  the 
Colonies,  and  adds, — "  As  for  his  measures,  let  it  be  remem- 
bered that  he  was  called  upon  to  conciliate  and  unite  ;  and 
that,  when  he  entered  into  office,  the  colonies  were  still  dis- 
posed to  proceed  by  the  constitutional  methods  of  petition  and 
remonstrance.  Since  that  period,  they  have  been  driven  into 
excesses  little   short  of  rebellion.      Petitions  have  been  hin- 


220  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

dered  from  reaching  the  throne ;  and  the  continuance  of  one 
of  the  principal  Assembhes  [that  of  Massachusetts]  rested  up- 
on an  arbitrary  condition," — that  they  should  retract  one  of  their 
resolutions,  and  erase  the  entry  of  it, — "  which,  considering  the 
temper  they  were  in,  it  was  impossible  they  should  comply 
with.  So  violent,  and,  I  believe  I  may  call  it,  so  unconstitu- 
tional an  exertion  of  the  prerogative,  gives  us  as  humble  an 
opinion  of  his  Lordship's  capacity,  as  it  does  of  his  temper  and 
moderation.  While  we  are  at  peace  with  other  nations,  our 
military  force  may  perhaps  be  spared  to  support  the  Earl  of 
Hillsborough's  measures  in  America.  Whenever  that  force 
shall  be  necessarily  withdrawn  or  diminished,  the  dismission 
of  such  a  minister  will  neither  console  us  for  his  impru- 
dence, nor  remove  the  settled  resentment  of  a  people,  who, 
complaining  of  an  act  of  the  legislature,  are  outraged  *  by 
an  unwarrantable  stretch  of  prerogative,  and,  supporting  their 
claims  by  argument,  are  insulted  with  declamation."  Does 
this  look  like  adv^ocating  the  authority  of  Britain  over  Ameri- 
ca in  any  other  than  the  qualified  sense  always  maintained 
by  Lord  Chatham  ?  and  never  qualified  by  Mr.  Grenville. 
The  two  most  efficient  men  of  the  Grenville  family  were 
Richard  Lord  Temple,  and  his  next  younger  brother,  George, 
whom  we  have  just  mentioned,  and  who  was  the  supposed 
father  of  our  stamp-act.  That  Junius  was  in  accordance 
with  Lord  Temple  is  pretty  clear ;  indeed  the  entire  stream 
of  his  opinions  runs  that  way ;  but  Junius  and  George 
Grenville  never  pushed  or  pulled  together  in  politics,  except 
in  the  cause  of  the  Middlesex  election.  Nevertheless  Junius 
discovers  a  marked  partiality  or  predilection  for  Mr.  Grenville 
as  a  man. 

I  am  ready  to  maintain,  that  Junius  was  not  a  strenuous  ad- 
vocate for  the  authority  of  the  British  Parliament  over  Ameri- 
ca, in  the  same  sense  as  over  the  people  of  England.    I  repeat 

*  Outrage, — to  injure  violently  or  contumeliously ;  to  insult  roughly; 
to  commit  exorbitances. — Johnson.  Of  all  writers  Junius  is  the  most 
remarkable  for  the  nice  selection  of  his  terms. 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  221 

it, — it  was  not  a  part  of  the  plan  of  our  author  to  discuss  the 
great  American  question.  He  ever  touches  it  cautiously,  and 
always  incidentally.  He  appears  to  dread  lest  violent  measures 
shotdd  create  combinations  of  resistance  in  America,  that  might 
probably  end  in  her  separation  from  the  mother  country.  He 
speaks  of  the  doctrine  of  taxation  as  a  matter  beyond  the  clear 
comprehension  of  the  people  at  large  ;  and  out  of  tenderness 
to  Mr.  Grenville,  gives  it  the  name  of  contribution.  In  an  in- 
teresting private  letter  to  Mr.  Wilkes,*  he  says,  "  If  you  (the 
supporters  of  the  Bill  of  Rights)  propose,  that,  in  the  article 
of  taxation,  they  [the  Americans]  should  be  hereafter  left  to 
the  authority  of  their  respective  assemblies,  I  must  own,  that 
I  think  you  had  no  business  to  revive  a  question  which  should, 
and  probably  would,  have  lain  dormant  for  ever."  Does  this 
look  like  urging  or  favoring  the  cause  of  the  Parliament,  to 
raise  a  revenue  in  America  by  taxing  them  without  their  con- 
sent ? 

But  to  come  to  the  point  at  once.  Junius  was  infested  by 
a  swarm  of  anonymous  writers,  amongst  whom  Mr.  Home  was 
suspected ;  and  was  urged  and  goaded  to  speak  out  his  senti- 
ments respecting  the  right  of  taxation  over  the  Americans ;  the 
impressing  of  seamen  ;  and  the  game  laws  ;  three  cunningly  de- 
vised snares.  In  November  2,  1771,  the  following  article  ap- 
peared in  Woodfall's  Public  Advertiser. 

"  We  are  desired  to  make  the  following  declaration,  in  be- 
half of  Junius,  upon  three  material  points,  on  which  his  opin- 
ion has  been  mistaken  or  misrepresented. 

"  Junius  considers  the  right  of  taxing  the  colonies  by  an 
act  of  the  British  legislature,  as  a  speculative  right  merely, 
never  to  be  exerted,  nor  ever  to  be  renounced.'^  To  his  judg- 
ment it  appears  plain,  '  That  the  general  reasonings,  which 
were  employed  against  that  power,  went  directly  to  our  whole 
legislative  right ;  and  that  one  part  of  it  could  not  be  yielded 
to  such  arguments  without  a  virtual  surrender  of  all  the  rest.' " 

*  No.  Ixvi. — The  younger  Woodfall's  edition. 


222  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

The  first  clause  is  plain  enough.  It  contains  his  own  senti- 
ments. The  latter  is  the  general  reasonings  of  others,  and  sa- 
vours of  the  lawyer,  where  the  cuttlefish  obscures  the  sight  of 
his  pursuers  by  his  effusion  of  ink.  Now,  a  right  never  to  be 
insisted  on,  must  be,  in  the  opinion  of  every  man  of  business, 
a  right  abandoned.  The  two  theories  may  not  be  absolutely 
the  same  ;  but,  at  most,  there  is  here  but  a  shadow  of  differ- 
ence in  opinion  between  himself  and  Lord  Chatham.  A  shade, 
if  not  more,  might  be  deemed  necessary  to  keep  up  the  vital 
deception  respecting  the  person  of  Junius.  In  a  private  letter 
to  Mr.  Wilkes,  September  7,  1771,  where  he  comments  on 
the  resolves  of  the  supporters  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  he  says  to 
him, — "  Since  the  repeal  of  the  stamp-act,  1  know  of  no  act 
tending  to  tax  the  Americans,  except  that  which  creates  the 
tea  duty  ;  and  even  that  can  hardly  be  called  internal.  Yet  it 
ought  to  be  repealed,  as  an  impolitic  act,  not  as  an  oppressive 
one.  It  preserves  the  contention  between  the  mother  country 
and  the  colonies,  when  every  thing  worth  contending  for  is 
given  up. 

"  When  this  act  is  repealed,  I  presume  you  will  turn  your 
thoughts  to  the  postage  of  letters  ;  a  tax  imposed  by  the  au- 
thority of  Parliament,  and  levied  in  the  very  heart  of  the  colo- 
nies^  This  is  saying,  in  pretty  plain  terms, — Advise  the 
Americans  to  resist  also  the  operation  of  our  post-office  act,  as 
it  regards  their  country.*  The  writer  in  the  Edinburgh  Re- 
view could,  therefore,  hardly  have  read  Junius  with  due  atten- 
tion, when  he  asserted  that  he  supported  the  cause  of  authority 
against  America  with  Mr.  Grenville.  We  assert,  and  shall 
prove  hereafter,  that  Lord  Chatham  and  Junius  thought  alike 

*The  Americans  never  viewed  the  postage  of  letters  in  the  light  of 
a  tax.  It  was  a  quid  pro  quo, — a  service  rendered  ;  a  price  paid  for  a 
certain  convenience.  There  was  no  compulsion.  A  man  might  take 
his  letter  from  the  post-office  or  let  it  alone,  send  it  by  his  own  ser- 
vant, or  by  the  hand  of  a  friend.  They  never  refused  to  pay  custom- 
house duties,  nor  ever  objected  to  the  British  regulations  of  trade  for 
the  general  benefit  of  the  whole  empire. 


DIFFICULTIES  CONSIDERED.  223 

on  the  exercise  of  authority  against  the  colonies.  Junius  never 
speai<s  contemptuously  of  the  Americans,  hut  the  reverse  ;  for 
example, — "  Neither  the  general  situation  of  our  colonies,  nor 
that  particular  distress,  which  forced  the  inhabitants  of  Boston 
to  take  up  arms  in  their  defence." — What  that  particular  dis- 
tress was,  may  be  learnt  from  the  speech  of  Lord  Chatham  urg- 
ing the  removal  of  the  British  troops  from  the  town,  (page  225.) 
Again,  '•  The  spirit  of  the  Americans  may  be  an  useful  exam- 
ple to  us." — "  A  series  of  inconsistent  measures  has  alienated 
the  colonies  from  their  duty  as  subjects,  and  from  their  natural 
affection  to  their  common  country."  And  in  his  famous  Letter 
to  the  King. — "  They  [the  Americans]  left  their  native  land  in 
search  of  freedom,  and  found  it  in  a  desert.  Divided  as  they 
are  into  a  thousand  forms  of  policy  and  religion,  there  is  one 
point  in  which  they  all  agree  ;  they  equally  detest  the  pa- 
geantry of  a  king,  and  the  supercilious  hypocrisy  of  a  bishop. 
It  is  not  then  from  the  alienated  affections  of  Ireland  or  Ameri- 
ca, that  you  can  reasonably  look  for  assistance." 

Having  shown  the  inclination  of  Junius  (for  we  must  again 
remind  the  reader,  that  he  touches  incidentally  only  the  great 
American  question),  it  is  proper  that  we  should  exhibit  the 
positive  opinion  of  Lord  Chatham  in  regard  to  taxing  America. 
He  had  said  in  the  House  of  Lords,  to  the  surprise  of  super- 
ficial thinkers,  "  I  rejoice  that  America  has  resisteb  "; 
and  his  reason  for  it  was  this  :  Lord  JVorth,  weary,  probably, 
with  applications  and  expostulations,  was  known  to  have  said, 
that  "  It  was  to  no  purpose  making  objections,  for  the  King 
would  have  it  so  "  ;  and  added,  "  that  the  King  meant  to 
try  the  q,UESTi0N  with  America,  and  Boston  was  fixed  upon 
as  the  proper  place  for  it ;  and  thus  a  civil  war  was  raised 
against  a  country  of  whigs,  to  try  that  dangerous  question.^'' 
The  first  step  was  to  fill  it  with  troops ;  and  on  the  twenty- 
seventh  of  May,  1774,  Lord  Chatham  attended  the  House  of 
Peers  on  the  third  reading  of  a  bill  for  quartering  soldiers  in 
America. 


224  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

His  re-appearance,  after  a  long  absence  from  Parliament, 
was  an  epoch  in  its  history,  on  which  occasion  he  said, — "  if 
we  take  a  transient  view  of  those  motives  which  induced  the 
ancestors  of  our  fellow-subjects  in  America  to  leave  their  na- 
tive country,  to  encounter  the  innumerable  difficulties  of  the 
unexplored  regions  of  the  western  world,  our  astonishment  at 
the  present  conduct  of  their  descendants  will  naturally  sub- 
side. There  was«  no  corner  of  the  world  into  which  men 
of  their  free  and  enterprising  spirit  would  not  fly  with  alacri- 
ty, rather  than  submit  to  the  slavish  and  tyrannical  principles 
which  prevailed,  at  that  period,  in  their  native  country.  And 
shall  we  wonder,  if  the  descendants  of  such  illustrious  char- 
acters spurn,  with  contempt,  the  hand  of  unconstitutional  pow- 
er, that  would  snatch  from  them  such  dear-bought  privileges 
as  they  now  contend  for? 

"  My  Lords,  this  country  is  little  obliged  to  the  framers  and 
promoters  of  this  tea  tax.  The  Americans  had  almost  forgot, 
in  their  excess  of  gratitude  for  the  repeal  of  the  stamp-act,  any 
interest  but  that  of  the  mother  country.  There  seemed  an 
emulation  among  the  different  provinces,  who  should  be  most 
dutiful  and  forward  in  their  expressions  of  loyalty  to  their  real 
benefactor,  as  testified  by  a  letter  from  Governor  Bernard. 

"  This  was  the  temper  of  the  Americans,  and  would  have 
continued  so,  had  it  not  been  interrupted  by  your  fruitless  en- 
deavours to  tax  them  without  their  consent.''^ 

In  January,  1775,  Lord  Chatham  appeared  again  in  Parlia- 
ment, when  he  powerfully  urged  the  importance  of  immediate- 
ly opening  the  way  towards  a  happy  settlement  of  the  danger- 
ous troubles  in  America.  On  which  memorable  occasion  he  said, 

"  My  Lords  !  These  papers  from  America  now  laid,  for  the 
first  time,  before  you,  have  been,  to  my  knowledge,  five  or 
six  weeks  in  the  pocket  of  the  ministry ;  and,  notwithstanding 
the  fate  of  this  kingdom  hangs  upon  the  event  of  this  great 
controversy,  we  are  but  this  moment  called  to  a  considera- 
tion of  this  important  subject.  I  do  not  wish  to  look  into 
one  of  those  papers.      I,  know  that  there  is  not  a  member 


SPEECH  OF  LORD  CHATHAM.  225 

of  tljis  House  but  is  acquainted  with  their  purport.  There 
ought,  therefore,  to  be  no  delay  in  entering  upon  this  matter. 
We  ought  to  seize  the  first  moment  to  open  the  door  of  recon- 
ciHation.  The  Americans  will  never  be  in  a  temper  or  state 
to  be  reconciled,  and  they  ought  not  to  be,  till  the  troops  are 
withdrawn.  The  troops  are  a  perpetual  irritation  to  these 
people.  I  therefore  move  an  humble  address  to  be  presented 
to  his  Majesty,  that  orders  may  be  despatched  for  removing  his 
Majesty's  forces  from  the  town  of  Boston,  &;c.  &6C.  in  the  usual 
parliamentary  form  of  such  bills. 

"  The  way,  my  Lords,  must  be  immediately  opened  for  re- 
conciliation. It  will  soon  be  too  late.  I  know  not  who  advised 
the  present  measures.  I  know  not  who  advises  to  a  perse- 
verance in  them  ;  but  this  I  will  say,  tliat  whoever  advises 
them  ought  to  answer  for  it  at  his  utmost  peril.  I  know  that 
no  one  will  avow  that  he  advised,  or  that  he  was  the  author 
of  these  measures.  Every  one  shrinks  from  the  charge.* 
Somebody  has  advised  his  Majesty  to  these  measures ;  and  if 
his  ]\Iajesty  continue  to  hear  such  evil  counsellors,  he  will  be 
undone.  His  Majesty  indeed  may  wear  his  crown,  but,  the 
American  jewel  out  of  it,  it  will  not  be  worth  the  wearing. 

"  What  more  shall  I  say  ?  I  must  not  say  that  the  King  is 
betrayed  ;  but  this  1  will  say, — the  nation  is  ruined. 

"  What  foundation  have  we  for  our  claims  over  America  ? 
What  is  0U7-  right  to  persist  in  such  cruel  and  vindictive  meas- 
ures against  that  loyal  and  respectable  people.  They  say, 
you  have  no  right  to  tax  them  without  their  consent.  They 
say  truly.  Representation  and  taxation  must  go  together  ; 
yet  there  is  hardly  a  man  in  our  streets,  though  so  poor  as 
scarcely  able  to  get  his  bread,  but  thinks  he  is  the  legislator  of 


''-  Proplietical  Chatham  knew  then,  as  we  all  have  since,  that  the 
coercion  of  America  was  the  King's  own  measure  ;  and  her  suhjuga- 
tion  his  darling  object.  Tlie  slamp-acl  was  George  the  Third's  favorite 
scheme,  and  not  Mr.  Grenville's,— and  next  to  that  was  Charles  Towns- 
hend's  tea  duty. 

29 


22G  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

America.     '  Our  Arnerican  subjects^  is   a  common  phrase  in 
the  months  of  the  lowest  order  of  our  citizens. 

"  Property,  my  Lords,  is  the  sole  and  entire  dominion  of 
the  owner.  None  can  meddle  with  it.  It  is  an  unity,  a 
mathematical  point,  an  atom  untangible  by  any  but  the  pro- 
prietor. Touch  it  and  you  contaminate  the  whole  mass.  The 
touch  of  another  annihilates  it  ;  for  whatever  is  a  man's  own 
is  absolutely  and  exclusively  his  own. 

"  In  the  last  Parhament  all  was  anger,  all  rage.  Adminis- 
tration did  not  consider  what  was  practicable,  but  what  was  re- 
venge. "  Sine  clade  victoria,''''  was  the  language  of  the  min- 
istry ;  but  every  body  knew, — an  idiot  might  have  known,  that 
would  not  have  been  the  issue.  But  the  ruin  of  the  nation 
was  a  matter  of  no  concern,  provided  administration  might  be 
revenged.  The  Americans  were  abused,  misrepresented,  tra- 
duced in  the  most  atrocious  manner,  in  order  to  give  a  color, 
and  urge  on  to  the  most  precipitate,  unjust,  cruel,  and  vindic- 
tive measures  that  ever  disgraced  a  nation. 

"  Gnossius  lime  Rhadamanthus  habet  durissima  regna ; 
Castigatque,  audilque  dolos."  * 

But  how  have  these  respectable  people  behaved  under  these 
grievances  ?  With  unexampled  patience,  with  unparalleled  wis- 
dom. They  chose  delegates  by  their  free  suffrages ; — no 
bribery,  no  corruption,  no  injluence  here,  my  Lords  !  Their 
representatives   meet,   with  the  sentiments  and  the  temper  of 

*  It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  Junius  applies  the  same  passage  to 
the  same  course  of  reasoning,  in  a  note  to  a  Letter  to  Lord  Mansfield, 
taken  from  Coke,  2  Inst.  55,  viz.  "  The  philosophic  poet  doth  notably 
describe  the  damnable  and  damned  proceedings  of  the  judge  of  hell, 
*  Gnossius  Jute  Rhadamanthus  habet  durissima  regna  ; 
Castigatque,  audilque  dolos,  subigitque  fateri.' " 
First  he  punisheth,  and  then  he  heareth  ;   and,  lastly,  compelleth  to 
confess,  and  makes  and   mars  laws  at  his  pleasure  ;  like  as  the  centu- 
rion, in  the  holy  history,  did  to  St.  Paul ;  for  the  text  saith, — '  Centurio 
apprehendi  Paulum  jussit,  et  se  catenis  eligari ;  et  tunc  interrogabat, 
quis  fuisset,  et  quid  fecisset.'     But  good  judges  and  justices  abhoy 
these  courses." 


SPEECH  OF  LORD  CHATHAM.  227 

lhe\r  constituents,  and  speak  the  sense  of  the  continent.  For 
genius,  for  sagacity,  for  singular  moderation,  for  solid  wisdom, 
manly  spirit,  sublime  sentiments,  and  simplicity  of  language, — 
for  every  thing  respectable  and  honorable,  the  Congress  of 
Philadelphia  shine  unrivalled.  This  wise  people  speak  out. 
They  do  not  hold  the  language  of  slaves.  They  tell  you  what 
tbey  mean.  They  do  not  ask  you  to  repeal  your  laws  as  a  favor, 
but  claim  it  as  a  right.  They  demand  it.  They  tell  you  they 
will  NOT  submit  to  them;  and  I  tell  you  the  acts  rmist  be  re- 
pealed. You  cannot  enforce  them.  The  ministry  are  check- 
mated. They  have  a  move  to  make  on  the  board,  and  cannot 
move  without  ruin.  A  bare  repeal,  my  Lords,  will  not  satisfy 
this  enlightened  and  spirited  people.  What !  repeal  a  bit  of 
paper  !  a  piece  of  parchment !  That  alone  will  not  do.  You 
must  go  farther.  You  must  go  through  with  it.  You  must 
declare  that  you  have  no  right  to  tax  them  ;  and  then  they  will 
trust  you  ;  then  they  will  have  confidence  in   you. 

"  A  noble  Lord  seemed  to  lay  some  blame  upon  General 
Gage.  I  think  the  general  has  behaved  with  great  prudence 
and  becoming  caution.  He  has  entrenched  himself,  and 
strengthened  his  fortifications.  I  do  not  see  what  he  could 
do  more.  His  situation  reminds  me  of  a  similar  transaction 
in  the  civil  wars  of  France,  when  the  great  Conde  on  one 
side,  and  Marshal  Turenne  on  the  other,  lay,  with  large  ar- 
mies, many  weeks  very  near  each  other.  Turenne,  conscious 
of  the  terrible  consequences  of  a  victory  to  himself  and  to  his 
country,  though  the  armies  were  several  days  in  sight  of  each 
other,  never  came  to  battle.  On  his  return  to  the  court  of 
France,  the  Queen  asked  him, — '  Why,  Marshal,  as  you  lay 
several  davs  in  sight  of  your  enemy,  ivhy  did  you  not  take 
him'?  '  The  general  shrewdly  replied, — '  Should  1  have  taken 
him,  I  was  afraid  all  Paris  ivoidd  have  taken  me.''  My  Lords, 
there  are  three  millions  of  whigs.  Three  millions  of  whigs, 
with  arms  in  their  hands,  are  a  very  formidable  body.  It  was 
the  whigs,  my  Lords,  who  set  his  Majesty's  royal  ancestors 
upon  the  throne  of  England.     I  hope  there  are  yet  double  the 


228      CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

number  of  wbigs  in  England  that  there  are  in  America.  I 
hope  the  whigs  of  both  countries  will  join  and  make  common 
cause.  Ireland  is  with  America  to  a  man.  The  whigs  in  that 
country  ivill,  and  those  of  this  country  ought,  to  think  the 
American  cause  their  oiun.  They  are  allied  to  each  other  in 
sentiment  and  interest ;  united  in  one  great  principle  of  de- 
fence and  resistance.  They  ouglit  therefore,  and  will,  run  to 
embrace  and  support  their  brethren. 

"  The  cause  of  '  ship-money  '  was  the  cause  of  all  the 
whigs  in  England.  '  You  shall  not  take  my  money  without 
my  consent,'  is  the  doctrine  and  language  of  whigs.  It  is  the 
doctrine  and  language  of  whigs  in  America  and  whigs  here. 
It  is  the  doctrine,  in  support  of  which,  I  do  not  know  how 
many  names  I  could — I  may  call  in  this  House.  Among  the 
living  I  cannot  say  how  many  would  join  with  me,  and  main- 
tain these  doctrines  with  their  blood.  But  among  the  dead  I 
could  raise  an  host  innumerable.  And,  my  Lords,  at  this  day 
there  are  very  many  sound,  substantial,  honest  whigs,  who 
ought,  and  who  will  consider  the  American  controversy  as  a 
great  common  cause. 

"  Consistent  with  the  preceding  doctrines  and  with  what  I 
have  ever,  and  shall  continue  to  maintain,  I  shall  oppose  Ameri- 
ca, whenever  I  see  her  aiming  at  throvving  off  the  navigation 
act,  and  other  regulatory  acts  of  trade  made  bond  jide  for  that 
purpose,  and  wisely  framed  and  calculated  for  reciprocation  of 
interest,  and  the  general,  extended  welfare  and  security  of  the 
whole  empire.  \Jfhat  is  the  difference  hetiveen  these  senti- 
ments and  those  0/ Junius  respecting  the  sovereignty  of  Great 
Britain  over  the  colonies?  I  see  none. ~\  It  is  suggested  that 
Independence  is  their  design.  I  see  no  evidence  of  it.  But 
to  come  at  a  certain  knowledge  of  their  sentiments  and  de- 
signs on  this  head,  it  would  be  proper  first  to  do  them  justice, 
before  you   treat  them  as  aliens,  rebels,  and  traitors."  * 

*  Samuel  Adams,  who  took  the  lead  in  Massachusetts,  after  the  re- 
tirement of  James   Otis,  always  contemplated  Independence.      He 


SPEECH  CF  LORD  CHATHAM.  229 

"  Deeply  impressed,  my  Lords,  with  the  importance  of  taking 
some  healing  measures  at  this  most  alarming,  distracted  state 
of  our  affairs,  though  bowed  down  with  a  cruel  disease,  I  have 
crawled  to  this  house  to  give  you  my  best  experience  and  coun- 
sel ;  and  my  advice  is,  to  beseech  his  Majesty,  that,  in  order 
to  open  the  way  toward  an  happy  settlement  of  the  dangerous 
troubles  in  America,  by  beginning  to  allay  ferments  and  soften 
animosities,  and  preventing  any  sudden  and  fatal  catastrophe  at 
Boston,  it  may  please  his  Majesty  to  send  immediate  orders  to 
General  Gage  for  removing  his  Majesty's  forces  from  the  town 
of  Boston.    [Here  his  Lordship  repeated  the  motion  at  length.] 

"  This  is  the  best  I  can  think  of.  It  will  convince  America, 
that  you  mean  to  try  her  cause  in  the  spirit  and  by  the  laws  of 
freedom  and  foir  inquiry,  and  not  by  codes  of  blood.  How 
can  she  now  trust  you,  with  the  bayonet,  at  her  breast?  She 
has  all  the  reason  in  the  world,  now,  to  believe  you  mean  her 
death  or  bondage. 

"  Thus  entering  on  the  threshold  of  this  business,  I  will 
knock  at  your  gates  for  justice  without  ceasing,  unless  invete- 
rate infirmities  stay  my  hand.  My  Lords,  I  pledge  myself 
never  to  leave  this  business ;  I  will  pursue  it  to  the  end  in 
every  shape.  I  will  never  fail  in  my  attendance  on  it,  at  every 
step  and  period  of  this  great  matter,  unless  nailed  down  to  my 
bed  by  the  severity  of  disease.  There  is  no  time  to  be  lost  j 
every  moment  is  big  with  danger.  Nay,  while  I  am  speaking, 
the  decisive  blow  may  have  been  struck,  and  millions  involved 
in  the  consequences.  The  very  first  drop  of  blood  will  make  a 
wound  that  will  not  easily  be  skinned  over.  Years,  perhaps 
ages,  may  not  heal  it.  It  will  be  an  "  irritalile  vulnus,^^  a 
wound   of  that  rancorous,   malignant,  corroding,  festering  na- 

fixed  his  dauntless  eye  and  incorruptible  heart  on  that  great  object, 
and  conducted  accordingly  with  consummate  wisdom  and  address  ;  and 
he  was  amply  rewarded  by  seeing  his  country  in  full  possession  of  it, 
and  in  seeing  his  kindred  co-patriot,  John  Mams,  received  by  George 
the  Third  as  our  first  ambassador,  and  the  same  gentleman  elevated 
afterwards  to  the  Presidency  of  these  United  States. 


230  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

ture,  that,  in  all  probability,  it  will  mortify  the  whole  body." 
[This  was  not  an  oratorial  exaggeration.  Three  months  after 
Lord  Chatham  uttered  this  solemn  warning  to  King  and  Par- 
liament, blood  was  drawn  at  Lexington,  12  miles  from  Boston, 
and  a  few  weeks  afterwards,  the  sanguinary  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill  was  fought,  within  three  miles  of  the  table  on  which  I  ara 
now  writing.*] 

"  Let  us  then,  my  Lords,  set  to  this  business  in  earnest, 
not  take  it  up  by  bits  and  scraps,  as  formerly,  just  as  exigen- 
cies pressed,  without  any  regard  to  the  general  relations,  con- 
nexions, and  dependencies.  I  could  not,  by  any  thing  I  have 
said,  my  Lords,  be  thought  to  encourage  America  to  proceed 
beyond  a  right  line.  I  reprobate  all  acts  of  violence  by  her 
mobility  ;  but  when  her  inherent  constitutional  rights  are  in- 
vaded,— those  rights  which  she  has  an  equitable  claim  to 
the  full  enjoyment  of,  by  the  fundamental  laws  of  the  Eng- 
lish constitution,  and  engrafted  thereon  by  the  unalterable 
laws  of  nature,  then  I  own  myself  an  American,  and  feel- 
ing myself  such,  shall,  to  the  verge  of  my  life,  vindicate 
those  rights  against  all  men  who  strive  to  trample  upon  or 
oppose  them." 

This  speech  amply  evinced,  that  neither  severe  illness,  in- 
creased years,  nor  three  years'  retirement,  had  damped  a  spark 
of  his  former  fire.  It  blazed  as  ever  in  matchless  eloquence. 
Most  men  thought,  Lord  Chatham  never  shone  in  such  over- 
whelming force  and  splendor  as  on  this  great  question, — the 
union  or  division  of  a  mighty  empire, — peace  or  a  civil  war. 
Dr.  Franklin,  who   was   in   the   House  of  Lords,  said  of  it, 

*  Lord  Mansfield  used  to  observe,  that  nothing  was  more  false  than 
modern  history.  We  think  so  too,  w.hen  we  read  such  histories  of  the 
American  revolution  and  war  as  that  by  Stedman,  and  find  him  relied 
on,  as  accurate,  by  writers  of  the  character  of  Adolphus  and  Bisset, 
who  have  mistakes  enough  without  adopting  his.  Even  the  battle- 
ground of  Bunker  hill  is  represented  as  a  very  steep  hill ;  whereas 
every  part  of  it  can  be  ascended  on  a  trot  in  a  coach  ;  and  a  lady  may 
trot  her  horse  over  any  part  of  it.  Foreigners  express  surprise  on 
viewing  the  gentle  slope. 


SPEECH  OF  LORD  CAMDEN.  231 

*'  that  he  had  seen,  in  the  course  of  life,  sometimes  eloquence 
without  wisdom,  and  often  wisdom  without  eloquence,  but  in 
this  instance  he  saw  both  united,  and  both,  as  he  thought,  in 
the  highest  degree  possible."  *  There  certainly  are  in  it  indica- 
tions of  deep  anxiety,  beyond  the  studied  rules  of  oratory, — 
a  fearful  apprehension,  an  ominous  something,  appalling  one 
of  *lfe  most  courageous  Peers,  that  perhaps  ever  raised  his 
voice  in  England, — a  prospect  of  things,  of  acts,  and  conse- 
quences, which  the  mind  of  the  monarch  seemed  insensible  to. 
"  While  I  am  now  speaking,"  said  the  prophetic  statesman, 
"  the  blow  may  be  struck,  and  millions  involved  in  the  conse- 
quences." Less  than  an  hundred  days  after  this,  blood  was 
drawn  in  this  vicinity,  and  the  jewel,  which  rendered  the  Brit- 
ish crown  worth  wearing,  was  stricken  from  it  by  a  species  of 
suicide  !  and  the  consequences  have  been  greater  than  any 
king,  conqueror,  or  individual  reformer  ever  effected. 

Lord  Camden,  the  intimate  and  confidential  friend  of  Lord 
Chatham,  spoke  next  on  the  side  of  America.  On  this  memo- 
rable occasion,  he  was  said  to  equal  Chatham  in  every  thing  but 
fire,  pathos,  and  a  certain  inimitable  dignity  of  manner.  In 
knowledge  of  law  no  man  in  the  realm  surpassed  him.  We 
dwell  with  great  satisfaction  on  his  weighty  discourse,  for  his 
authority  in  the  great  American  question,  and  because  Junius 
esteemed  Lord  Camden  the  only  man  worthy  to  complete  the 
task  he  himself  began  ;  for  to  this  luminary  of  the  law,  and  firm 
friend  of  the  constitution,  he  ''  turns  with  pleasure  from  that 
barren  waste  in  which  no  salutary  plant  takes  root,  no  verdure 
quickens,  to  a  character  fertile  in  every  great  and  good  qualifi- 
cation." To  this  apparent  friend  and  legal  oracle,  the  great 
unknown  says,  "  I  call  you,  in  the  name  of  the  English  na- 
tion, to  stand  forth  in  defence  of  the  laws  of  your  country,  and 
to  exert,  in  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice,  those  great  abili- 
ties with  which  you  were  entrusted  for  the  benefit  of  man- 
kind."— "  When  the  contest  turns   upon   the   interpretation   of 

*  Letter  to  Lord  Stanhope. 

L._,_....-U 


232  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

the  laws,  you  cannot,  without  a  formal  surrender  of  all  your 
reputation,  yield  the  post  of  honor  even  to  Lord  Chatham. 
Considering  the  situation  and  abilities  of  Lord  Mansfield,  1  do 
not  scruple  to  affirm,  with  the  most  solemn  appeal  to  God  for 
my  sincerity,  that,  in  my  judgment,  he  is  the  very  worst  and 
most  dangerous  man  in  the  kingdom." 

But  to  return  to  the  speech  of  Lord  Camden.  After  speak- 
ing of  the  nature  of  property,  the  right  of  taxation,  and  its  in- 
separability from  representation,  his  Lordship  said,  "  I  will 
not  enter  into  the  large  field  of  collateral  reasoning,  applicable 
to  the  abstruse  distinctions  touching  the  omnipotence  of  Parha- 
ment.  The  declaratory  law  sealed  my  mouth.  But  this  I 
wdl  say,  not  only  as  a  statesman,  politician,  and  philosopher,  but 
as  a  common  lawyer,  you  have  no  right  to  tax  America. 
The  natural  rights  of  man  and  the  immutable  laws  of  nature 
are  all  with  that  people.  I  have  searched  the  matter  5  I  re- 
peat it,  my  Lords,  you  have  no  right  to  tax  America. 
Much  stress  is  laid  on  the  supreme  legislative  authority  of 
Great  Britain,  and  so  far  as  the  doctrine  is  directed  to  its  pro- 
per object,  I  accede  to  it.  But  it  is  equally  true,  according 
to  all  approved  writers  on  government,  that  710  v^fft,  agreeably 
to  the  principles  of  natural  and  civil  liberty,  can  be  divested  of 
any  part  of  his  property  without  his  consent.  Every  thing 
has  been  staked  upon  this  single  position,  that  acts  of  Parlia- 
ment must  he  obeyed.  But  this  general,  unconditional,  unlim- 
ited assertion,  I  am  far  from  thinking  applicable  to  every  pos- 
sible case  that  may  arise  in  the  turn  of  times.  For  my  part  I 
conceive,  that  a  power  resulting  from  trust,  arbitrarily  exer- 
cised, may  be  laivfully  resisted,  whether  the  power  is  lodged 
in  a  collective  body,  or  in  a  single  person  ;  in  the  iew  or  the 
many  ;  however  modified  makes  no  difference.  Whenever 
the  trust  is  wrested  to  the  injury  of  the  people  ;  whenever 
oppression  begins,  all  is  unlawful  and  unjust ;  and  resistance 
of  course  becomes  lawful  and  right.  But  some  Lords  tell  us, 
and  that  seriously,  that  administration  must  reduce  the  Ameri- 
cans to  obedience  and  submission  ;    that  is,  you  must  make 


SPEECH  OF  LORD  CAMDEN.  233 

them  absolute  and  infamous  slaves,  and  then, — What? — we 
will  give  them  full  liberty.  Ah  !  is  this  the  nature  of  man  ? 
No  !  no  !  my  Lords  !  I  would  not  trust  myself,  American  as 
I  am  in  principle,  in  this  situation.  In  that  case,  I  do  not 
think  that  I  sbould  be  for  giving  them  liberty.  No!  if  they 
submitted  to  such  unjust,  such  cruel,  such  degrading  slavery,  I 
should  think  they  were  made  for  slaves,  that  their  servility  was 
suited  to  their  nature  and  genius.  I  should  think  they  would 
best  serve  this  country  as  their  slaves,  that  their  servility  would 
be  for  the  benefit  of  this  country,  and  I  should  be  for  keep- 
ing such  Cappadocians  in  a  state  of  servitude,  such  as  was 
suited  to  their  constitution. 

"  Some  Lords  speak  much  against  resistance  to  acts  of  Par- 
liament. Kings,  Lords,  and  Commons  are  fine  sounding 
names.  But,  my  Lords,  acts  of  Parliament  have  been  resist- 
ed in  all  ages.  Kings,  Lords,  and  Commons  may  become 
tyrants  as  well  as  others.  Tyranny  in  one  or  more  is  the 
same.  Somebody  asked  the  great  Mr.  Selden*  in  what  law- 
book, in  what  records  or  archives  of  the  state  you  might  find 
the  law  for  resisting  tyranny.  '  I  don't  know,'  said  Selden, 
*  whether  it  would  be  worth  your  while  to  look  deeply  into 
books  upon  this  matter ',  but  I  will  tell  you  what  is  most  cer- 
tain, that  it  has  always  been  the  Custom  of  England,  and  the 
Custom  of  England  is  the  law  of  the  land.' "  Lord  Camden 
then  referred  to  some  writer  who  seemed  to  be  present ; 
doubtless  Judge  Blackstone,  "  who  considers  '  the  Revolution  ' 
as  the  only  precedent ;  and  that  the  various  circumstances, 
events,  and  incidents,  which  may  justify  resistance  cannot  be 
defined  ;  but  the  people  at  large  will  judge  of  their  welfare 
and  happiness,  and  act  accordingly.  The  same  writer  says, 
whenever  a  case  exactly  similar,  in  all  its  parts  and  circum- 
stances, to  *  the  revolution,'  when  a  case  shall  run  upon  all 
fours  like  that,  then  the  law  seems  to  be  settled,  tiiat  resistance 
is  lawful,    I  do  not  pretend,"  says  his  Lordship,  "  to  quote  his 

*  Called  by  Grotius  the  glory  of  England. 
30 


234  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

words  ;  I  think  his  meaning  is  very  much  as  I  have  stated  it ; 
but  undoubtedly  in  many  cases,  in  many  respects,  dissimilar, 
but  in  equal  degree  tyrannical  and  oppressive,  resistance  may 
be  lawful ;  and  the  people  in  all  ages,  countries,  and  climes, 
have,  at  times,  known  these  things;  and  they  have,  and  they 
will  for  ever  act  accordingly." 

Junius  hints  at  this  custom,  or  law  of  the  land,  again  and 
again.  There  is  no  sudden  thought,  train  of  ideas,  trait  of 
principle,  chain  of  reasoning,  nor  any  thing  respecting  Ameri- 
ca or  Britain,  in  the  Letters  of  Junius,  contradictory  to,  or  in- 
consistent with,  the  sentiments  maintained  by  Lord  Chatham 
and  by  his  intimate  friend  Lord  Camden.  They  seem  kin- 
dred souls ;  and  I  have  long  believed,  that  Earl  Camden 
knew  the  writer  of  Junius.  Lord  Camden  said  in  the  House 
of  Lords,  "  I  accepted  the  great  seals  without  conditions  ;  I 
meant  not  therefore  to  be  trammelled  by  his  Majesty — ^I  beg 
pardon, — by  his  ministers  ;  but  I  have  suffered  myself  to  be 
so  too  long.  For  some  time  I  have  beheld,  with  silent  indig- 
nation, the  arbitrary  measures  of  the  minister.  I  have  often 
drooped  and  hung  down  my  head  in  council,  and  disapproved, 
by  my  looks,  those  steps  which  I  knew  my  avowed  opposition 
could  not  prevent.  I  will  do  so  no  longer  ;  but  openly  and 
boldly  speak  my  sentiments."  * — "  The  ministry,  by  their  vio- 
lent and  tyrannical  conduct,  had  alienated  the  minds  of  the 
people  from  his  Majesty's  government,  I  had  almost  said,  from 
his  person  5  and  in  consequence  a  spirit  of  discontent  had  spread 
into  every  corner  of  the  kingdom,  and  was  every  day  increas- 
ing ;  and  if  some  methods  are  not  devised  to  appease  the 
clamors  so  universally  prevalent,  I  do  not  know  but  the  peo- 
ple, in  despair,  may  become  their  own  avengers,  and  take  the 
redress  of  grievances  into  their  own  hands."  f 

*Lord  Eldon  said,  in  the  House  of  Peers,  that  "the  author  of 
the  Letters  of  Junius,  if  not  himself  a  lawyer,  must  certainly  have 
written  in  concert  with  the  ablest  and  best  of  lawyers." 

t  Adolphus's  History  of  England.  Vol.  i.  p.  371. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

STRATAGEMS  AND  SUBTERFUGES  OF  POLITICIANS.  JUNIUs's 
CO-OPERATION  WITH  THE  WHIG-PARTY,  CHATHAM  NEVER 
COUNTENANCED  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCY.  THIS  ALWAYS 
MAINTAINED  BY  SAMUEL  ADAMS  IN  MASSACHUSETTS,  AND 
BY  STEPHEN  HOPKINS  IN  RHODE  ISLAND.  SKETCH  OF  THE 
CHARACTER  OF  SAMUEL  ADAMS.  INDEPENDENCY  NEVER 
LOST  SIGHT  OF  IN  MASSACHUSETTS.  CONCEDED  BY  THE  AU- 
THOR  CONFIRMED  BY  CHALMERS.  MISCELLANEOUS  OBSER- 
VATIONS. 

We  have,  in  our  two  last  Chapters,  scrambled  through  a 
rough  and  intricate  passage,  crowded  with  natural  difficulties, 
and  some  obstacles  thrown  purposely  in  the  way  of  the  travel- 
ler, to  confound  his  calculations,  by  turning  a  portion  of  plain 
road  into  pathless  confusion,  where  the  mind,  perplexed  with 
mazes,  was  at  times  bewildered,  but  not  discouraged  ;  for 
while  earth  confounded  us,  the  sun  in  the  firmament,  source 
of  light  and  emblem  of  truth,  was  our  guide  and  comfort. 

Rigid  moralists  tell  us,  that  a  truly  honest  man  dares  no 
more  look  an  untruth  than  utter  one.  There  is,  be  sure,  a 
lamentable  difference  between  what  ought  to  be  and  what  is. 
The  closet  philosopher  and  the  secluded  female  may  lay  down 
rules,  and  weep  that  so  few  are  disposed  to  follow  them.  One 
of  them  says,  under  the  head  of  "  Lies  of  Benevolence,''^  * 
"  My  own  opinion  is,  which  I  give  with  great  humihty,  that 
Truth  is  never  to  be  violated,  or  withheld  in  order  to  deceive  ; 
but  I  know  myself  to  be  in  such  a  painful  minority  on  this 
subject,  that  I  almost  doubt  of  the  correctness  of  my  own  judg- 
ment." It  is  a  fact,  that  the  sacred  history,  written  for  our 
instruction,  celebrates  the  names  of  very  few  persons  of  in- 
violable truth  and  strict  integrity.  Modern  history  but  echoes 
the  ancient  on  this  sad  subject.     "  The  Icon  Basilike,^''  written 

*Mrs.  Opie. 


236  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

by  Doctor  Gauden,  who  was  made  a  bishop  for  it,  was 
palmed  on  the  public  as  the  pious  production  of  King  Charles 
the  First,  and  is  believed  to  be  from  the  pen  of  that  monarch, 
by  numbers  in  England  and  a  few  in  America,  at  this  day.* 

Our  own  countryman,  Franklin,  practised  a  refined  stroke 
of  deception  to  benefit  his  country,  by  imposing  a  newspaper, 
printed  in  his  own  house  in  France,  for  one  printed  in  Bos- 
ton, which  completely  deceived  the  British  Legation  at  Paris. 
The  anecdote  is  worth  recording  here. 

While  the  Doctor  was  soliciting  the  government  of  France 
to  form  an  alliance  offensive  and  defensive  with  the  new  States 
of  America,  the  English  ambassador  near  that  court  sent  a 
genuine  Boston  newspaper  to  the  French  minister,  containing 
an  account  of  the  defeat  of  the  Americans  with  great  loss ; 
which  statement  was  authentic,  and  it  retarded  the  negotiation. 
Franklin,  who,  every  body  knows,  was  originally  a  printer, 
thereupon  set  to  work  in  his  own  house,  where  he  always  kept 
a  complete  printing  apparatus,  and  directly  printed  a  counter- 
feit Boston  newspaper,  containing  advertisements,  anecdotes, 
speculations,  and  a  httle  of  every  thing  common  to  our  public 
prints  in  that  day,  together  with  an  official  account  of  a  victory 
gained  over  the  British  troops,  with  loss  of  their  cannon,  &tc. 
This  was  sent  to  the  French  minister,  and  he  sent  it  to  Lord 
Storrnont,  the  British  ambassador,  who  was  confounded  by  the 
sight  of  it.  Franklin  took  special  care  to  represent  the  genu- 
ine American  newspaper  to  be  one  of  the  New  York  forgeries, 
not  then  uncommon  at  the  British  head  quarters,  and  that 
which  came  through  him  the  only  true  one.  Who  thought  the 
worse  of  the  American  minister  for  the  deception  ?  So  far 
from  being  considered,   what  it  really  was,  a  deliberate  lie,  it 

*  Lord  Clarendon  knew,  negatively,  that  Charles  the  First  did  not 
write  the  Icon  Basilike,  and,  positively,  that  Gauden,  Bishop  of  Win- 
chester did  write  it.  See  his  Letter  to  Gauden,  March  13,  1661  ;  yet 
he  favored  the  deception  hy  his  silence.  Johnson  quotes,  in  his  Dic- 
tionary, King  Charles  as  the  author,  and  Dr.  Webster  is  perpetuating 
the  deception. 


STRATAGEMS  OF  POLITICIANS.  237 

added  to  the  renown  of  the  philosopher  and  politician,  proving 
him  to  be  a  match  for  the  diplomatists  of  the  old  world,  and 
qualified  to  negotiate  with  them.  Even  the  modern  Moses 
acted  deceptions  in  his  military  movements  ;  as  at  Cambridge, 
when  he  drove  General  Howe  out  of  Boston  ;  and  deceived 
Chnton  before  New  York,  precursory  to  his  fatal  blow  against 
Lord  Cornwallis  in  Virginia. 

After  these  examples,  and  many  more  that  might  be  urged, 
why  should  we  lay  any  great  stress  upon  the  assertions  of  Ju- 
nius, whenever  they  regard  the  vital  secret  of  his  personality  ? 
We  mean  not  to  justify  falsification,  or  to  countenance  equivo- 
cation or  evasion,  but  only  to  show  what  has  been  practised  by 
eminent  politicians  in  all  countries  and  ages  of  the  world,  when 
any  great  and  very  important  public  object  was  in  hand. 
Hitherto  our  own  government  has  kept  her  white  robes  free 
from  every  stain,  as  a  government,  whatever  may  have  been 
the  wary  and  cunning  conduct  of  individual  agents  and  ser- 
vants of  it.  We  cannot,  however,  too  often  remind  the  reader 
of  the  singularly  perilous  situation  of  Junius,  cased  up,  face 
and  all,  in  complete  armour.  He  says,  in  a  private  letter  to 
his  printer,  Woodfall,  "  I  must  be  more  cautious  than  ever. — 
I  am  sure  I  should  not  survive  discovery  three  days ;  or  if  I 
should,  they  would  attaint  n>e  by  bill."  In  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Wilkes,  in  September,  1771,  he  says,  "  I  willingly  accept  as 
much  of  your  friendship  as  you  can  impart  to  a  man  whom  you 
will  assuredly  never  know.  Beside  personal  consideration,  if 
I  were  known,  I  could  no  longer  be  an  useful  servant  to  the 
public." — "  I  speak  from  a  recess  wdiich  no  human  curiosity 
can  penetrate."  He  really  presents  a  singular  phenomenon  in 
history. 

"  One  of  the  greatest  difficulties,  in  fixing  upon  any  one  per- 
son the  character  of  Junius,  is,"  says  the  Reminiscent  Butler, 
"  to  find  one,  who,  hke  him,  was,  at  once,  well  acquainted  with 
the  circle  of  the  court,  with  city  conflicts,  with  the  public  of- 
fices of  government,  and  with  the  characters  and  habits  of  the 
leaders  of  the  parties  and  their  runners."     Whether  our  by- 


238  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

pothesis  increases  or  diminishes  this  difficulty,  we  leave  to  the 
future  consideration  of  the  reader »  On  any  other,  difficulties 
multiply  to  an  extent  that  is  discouraging. 

We  can  cite  several  passages  to  show,  that  to  speak  truth 
concerning  himself,  by  no  means  entered  into  the  plan  of  Ju- 
nius. He  wrote  a  letter  signed  "  Anti-Fox,''^  in  reply  to  a 
pert  one,  written  by  the  afterwards  famous  Charles  Fox,  when 
a  mere  youth,  in  which  our  author  says,  "  I  know  nothing  of 
Junius."  Mr.  Woodfall  knew,  that  the  assertion  was  untrue. 
In  the  pages  of  Junius,  we  discover  under  the  thin  guise  of 
carelessness,  and  now  and  then  a  sly  air  of  artlessness,  a 
studied  artifice  to  conceal  his  rank  and  condition.  When  pre- 
dicting that  his  book  will  be  transmitted  to  posterity,  he  art- 
fully changes  his  tone,  and  says,  in  gentle  accents,  "  Mine,  I 
confess,  are  humble  labors.  I  do  not  presume  to  instruct  the 
learned,  but  simply  to  inform  the  people."  After  telling  us, 
that  he  is  a  plain,  unlettered  man,  he,  in  the  same  humble 
strain,  says,  "  I  should  be  inconsistent  with  the  principles  I 
profess,  if  I  declined  an  appeal  to  the  good  sense  of  the  people^ 
or  did  not  willingly  submit  myself  to  the  judgment  of  my 
peers  "  ;  as  if  he  was  one  of  the  undistinguished  commonalty. 
But  whenever  Junius  addresses  personages  of  the  highest  rank, 
and  him  with  whom  there  is  no  competition,  there  is  a  tone  of 
equality,  which  Dean  Swift  was  unable  to  assume  and  maintain 
with  credit.  In  Junius  it  fits  as  naturally  as  his  skin  ;  in  Swift 
it  resembles  a  dramatist,  his  elbows  and  his  immovable  fea- 
tures appearing  through  the  disguise.  But  Junius  is  always 
dignified.  In  his  public  letters,  we  see  him  in  his  robes  ;  in 
his  privates  ones,  in  his  rich  gown  and  slippers,  and  always  the 
nobleman.  That  he  was  a  man  past  the  noon  of  life,  appears 
from  several  circumstances.  In  a  letter  to  Mr.  Wilkes,  in  Au- 
gust 21,  1771,  which,  though  lengthy,  is  not  a  long  one,  he 
concludes  with  saying,  "  I  am  heartily  weary  of  writing,  and 
shall  reserve  another  subject  on  which  I  mean  to  address  you." 
And  in  a  note  to  the  same  gentleman,  thanking  him  for  his 
offer  of  tickets  to  the  Lord  Mayor's  ball,  he  says,  "  But  alas ! 


STRATAGEMS  OF  JUNIUS.  239 

my  age  and  figure  would  do  but  little  credit  to  my  partner." 
And  in  writing  to  him  again  in  September  18,  he  thus  expresses 
his  personal  feelings  ;  "  In  pursuing  such  inquiries,  1  lie  un- 
der a  singular  disadvantage.  Not  venturing  to  consult  those 
who  are  qualified  to  inform  me,  I  am  forced  to  collect  every 
thing  from  books,  or  common  conversation.  The  pains  I  took 
with  that  paper  upon  privilege  were  greater  than  I  can  express 
to  you.  Yet  after  I  had  blinded  myself  with  pouring  over 
journals,  debates,  and  parliamentary  history,  I  was  at  last 
obliged  to  hazard  a  bold  assertion  with  an  air  of  carelessness."  * 
Here  we  see  an  infirm,  old  man,  spectacles  and  all.  We,  how- 
ever, reiterate  the  observation,  that,  whenever  Junius  mentions 
himself,  or  speaks  of  Lord  Chatham,  it  is  in  a  very  cau- 
tious and  guarded  manmer,  or  in  a  parenthesis ',  and  never 
in  a  style  to  be  construed  into  contempt.  Thus,  in  a  note  to 
Mr.  Woodfall,  he  says,  "  By  your  aliected  silence,  you  en- 
courage the  idle  opinion  that  I  am  the  author  of  the  '  Whig,' 
though  you  very  well  know  the  contrary.  I  neither  admire 
the  writer  nor  his  Idol."  This  idol  was  Lord  Chatham  him- 
self, whom  the  whig  panegyrizes  in  very  warm  terms. 

In  Letter  XIV.  under  the  signature  of  Philo- Junius,  he 
says,  "  The  Duke  of  Grafton  has  always  some  excellent  rea- 
son for  deserting  his  friends, — the  age  and  incapacity  of  Lord 
Chatham,  the  debility  of  Lord  Rockingham,  or  the  infamy  of 
Mr.  Wilkes."  To  which  Mr.  Heron  subjoins  this  note. — 
"  Lord  Chatham,  having,  from  early  life,  suffered  much  by 
the  gout,  was,  at  this  time,  exceedingly  afflicted  with  it.  But 
he  had  often  opportunities  to  show,  after  this  period,  that  the 
vigor  of  his  mind  remained  miconquered  by  the  infirmities  of 
his  body.  To  the  last,  he  was  able  to  shake  the  Senate,  even 
with  more  energetic  and  impressive  eloquence,  than  in  the 
first  pride  and  ambition  of  his  youth." 

*  We,  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  can  enter  into  his  feelings  in  this 
respect.  We  may  make  ridiculous  mistakes  in  trifling  facts,  which  a 
Londoner  might  answer  in  a  minute. 


240  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

We  may  remark,  amongst  other  things,  in  this  miscellaneous 
chapter,  that  Lord  Chatham,  in  a   speech   in   Parhament  in 
1770,   makes  bitter  and  fretful  complaints  of  the  hypocritical 
conduct  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  during  his  illness  at  Bath  and 
Hampstead,  and  insinuates,  more  than  once,  that  the  Duke  had 
dealt  treacherously  with  him.     Now,   it  is  worthy  of  remark, 
that  Junius,  in  the  paragraph  immediately  following  the  strange 
eulogy  on  Lord  Chatham   already  mentioned,  says,  "  My  de- 
testation   of  the  Duke  of  Grafton  is  not  founded   upon    his 
treachery  to  any  individual,   though  I   am  willing    enough  to 
suppose,  that,  in  public  affairs,   it  would  be  impossible   to  de- 
sert or  betray  Lord  Chatham,  without  doing  an  essential  injury 
to  the   country.     My  abhorrence  to  the  Duke  arises  from  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  his  character,  and  from  a  thorough  con- 
viction, that  his  baseness  has  been  the  cause  of  greater  mischief 
to    England,    than    even    the    unfortunate    ambition    of  Lord 
Bute."     How  happened   it,   that  Junius  never  speaks  of  Lord 
Bute  in  that  bitter  style   of  abhorrence,  which  he  utters  to- 
wards Grafton,  Bedford,  Barrington,  Mansfield,  and  some  oth- 
er noblemen  ?  *     In  the  same  very  able  letter  (LIV.)  he  says, 
alluding  to  the  politics  of  the  city  of  London,    "  It  is  unneces- 
sary to  bind  Lord  Chatham  by  the  written  formality  of  an  en- 
gagement [as  some  in  the  city  proposed.]     He  has  publicly 
declared  himself  a  convert  to  triennial  Parliaments;  and  though 
I  have  long   been  convinced,  that    this   is  the   only  possible 
resource  we  have  left  to   preserve  the  substantial  freedom  of 
the   constitution,   I   do  not  think  we  have  a  right  to  determine 
against  the   integrity  of  Lord  Rockingham  or  his  friends," — 
amongst  whom  stood  conspicuously  Lord  Chatham. 

On  this  passage  Mr.  Heron  remarks,  that  "  Junius  here 
evaded  any  decision  between  the  principles  of  the  two  subdi- 
visions of  the  whig-partii.  He  was  afraid  to  stir  up  any  dis- 
cussion, which  might  tend  to  set  them,   unseasonably,  at  vari- 

*  It  is  pretty  evident  that  Lord  Chatham,  as  well  as  Junius,  believed 
that  the  ruling  Daemon,  in  the  interior,  secret  cabinet,  was  a  female. 


JUNIUS'  CO-OPERATION  WITH  THE  WHIGS.  241 

ance.  The  grand  distinction  between  them,  as  to  principle, 
respected  the  reform  of  Parliament.  The  Newcastle  and 
Rockingham  whigs  were  disposed  to  preserve  septennial  Par- 
liaments ;  while  the  followers  of  Pitt  and  the  Grenvilles  were 
half  inchned  to  gratify  the  popular  cry  for  the  restoration  of 
triennial  elections.  We  cannot  enough  admire  the  address 
with  which  Junius  praises  and  justifies  both,  and  strives  to 
confirm  their  mutual  reconciliation,  yet  without  making  him- 
self responsible  for  the  principles  and  conduct  of  either." 

To  these  apt  remarks  we  may  add,  what  is  worth  consider- 
ation, the  delicate  situation  of  Lord  Chatham,  as  it  regarded 
his  brother-in-law.  Lord  Tem])le,  and  the  Marquis  of  Rock- 
ingham, at  that  time.  Lord  Chatham,  naturally  overbearing 
and  peremptory,  had  fallen  out  with  both  these  distinguished 
members  of  the  great  whig-party.  It  had  been  a  division,  or 
rather  distinction,  without  absolute  discord,  until  a  personal 
coolness  and  estrangement  took  place  between  the  two  brotli- 
ers,  on  account  of  some  ministerial  dispositions  misunderstood. 
By  the  intervention  of  common  friends,  a  reconcihation  was  at 
length  brought  about  with  both,  adding  strength  to  their  former 
amity.  This  unhappy  schism,  and  the  recently  restored  har- 
mony, will  account,  on  our  hypothesis,  for  the  singular  cast  of 
the  Fifty-fourth  Letter  of  Junius,  which,  while  it  bears  strong 
marks  of  wonderful  povVers  of  mind,  bears  not  a  few  traits  of 
embarrassment,  and  seems  employed  as  a  vehicle  to  convey 
assistance  in  bolstering  up,  in  the  view  of  the  pubHc,  the 
invalid  Lord  Chatham,  who  was  in  that  cautious  and  delicate 
state  which  always  follows  the  re-union  of  broken  friend- 
ship. 

Beside  the  cautious  phraseology,  and  sly  air  of  affected  care- 
lessness, or,  if  you  please,  studied  artlcssness,  practised  by  Juni- 
us, whenever  he  mentions  Lord  Chatham,  it  is  a  circumstance 
equally  remarkable,  that  his  Lordship  has  never  once  uttered 
the  name  of  Junius,  in  any  speech  that  has  come  down  to  us, 
even  while  earnestly  discussing  the  subject  of  the  prosecution 
of  Woodfall  for  publishing  his  Letter  to  the  King.  It  is  al- 
31 


242  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

ways  Woodfall,  and  never  Junius.  Among  peculiarities,  how 
came  it  to  pass  that  a  character  so  prominent,  so  very  active, 
efficient,  and  respectable,  as  Richard  Grenville,  Lord  Temple^ 
is  never  once  named  in  the  Letters  of  JuNros  ?  Again,  how 
came  it,  that  Lord  Chatham,  clarum  et  venerahile  nomen,  the 
object  of  JuNius's  veneration,  was  never  called  on  by  him  to 
aid  the  cause  in  which  he  risked  his  Hfe,  and  more  than  hfe  ? 

Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham,  and  Henry  Fox,  Lord  Holland, 
were  school-fellows.  The  latter  was  a  great  favorite  of  George 
the  Second,  who  wished  Chatham  to  admit  him  into  his  admin- 
istration, but  the  minister  refused  the  request  of  his  sovereign 
peremptorily  j  yet  was  there  a  steady  personal  friendship  be- 
tween those  two  noblemen.  Lord  Holland  was  the  much  ap- 
proved paymaster-general,  during  the  whole  of  Mr.  Pitt's 
triumphant  administration  ;  a  post  of  great  trust,  in  which  in- 
tegrity was  a  sine  qua  non,  and  where  dishonor  could  not  re- 
main while  that  minister  was  at  the  helm. 

The  conduct  of  Lord  Chatham  towards  Lord  Holland 
is  entitled  to  particular  notice,  inasmuch  as  the  like  partiality 
is  discoverable  in  Junius  towards  that  nobleman.  The 
younger  Woodfall  remarks,  that  "  Junius  appears  to  have  uni- 
formly entertained  a  good  opinion  of,  or,  at  least,  a  partiality 
for  Lord  Holland."  The  late  celebrated  Charles  Fox,  son 
of  the  nobleman  just  mentioned,  when  'young  and  forward,  had 
the  hardihood  to  attack  Junius,  who  condescended  to  reply  to 
him,  under  the  signature  of  Anti-Fox,  bearing  traits  of  authen- 
ticity;  and,  after  saying  that  "  he  knew  nothing  ©/"Junius  "  ! 
adds,  "  I  see  plainly,  that  he  designedly  spared  Lord  Holland 
and  his  family.  Whether  Junius  should  be  wantonly  pro- 
voked, are  questions  worthy  the  Black  Boy's  *  consideration." 
Now  Pitt  and  the  father  of  Charles  were  friends  from  boy- 
hood. Fox  was  the  elder  by  three  years,  and  very  much 
attached  to  Mr.  Pitt  through  life ;  yet  they  seldom  drew  to- 

*  Charles  Fox  was  of  so  dark  a  complexion,  that  be  looked  more  like 
a  Portuguese  Jew  than  a  Christian. 


JUNIUS'  CO-OPERATION  WITH  THE  WHIGS.  243 

gether  in  politics,  whether  in  the  Commons  or  House  of  Peers. 
Nevertheless  they  had  a  personal  regard  for  each  other.  Fox 
was  a  quick,  warm-tempered  man,  yet  his  coolness  and  pa- 
tience, under  the  tart  remarks  of  Pitt,  were  noticed  as  far 
back  as  the  year  1755.  Mr.  Fox,  however,  appeared  always 
to  delight  in  praising  the  oratorial  powers  of  his  old  friend  and 
political  opponent  ;  while  he,  in  return,  speaks  handsomely  of 
his  school-mate  ;  and  when  they  did  wrangle,  it  was  more 
like  the  querimoniousness  of  brothers  than  real  enmity.  They 
were  very  different  men  in  constitution  and  habits.  The 
bond  of  attachment  between  friends  in  both  sexes  is  not  al- 
ways similarity  of  disposition  ;  but  often  the  reverse.  Mr. 
Fox  was  a  strong-fibred,  hardy,  healthy  man,  frank,  open, 
and  agreeable  ;  but  impetuous  in  his  temper,  social,  industrious 
in  business,  companionable,  fond  of  drinking  and  gaming, 
with  a  strong  bias  to  dissipation,  and  totally  divested  of  that 
repellent  atmosphere  which  surrounded  the  lofty  Mr.  Pitt. 
This  same  Lord  Holland  was  a  powerful  speaker,  and  a  good 
and  candid  judge  of  oratory  in  others  ;  but  in  the  graces  of 
elocution,  in  imagination,  in  fluency,  in  fire  and  pathos,  greatly 
inferior  to  his  friend  Lord  Chatham.  Amid  failings  like  these, 
which  he  transmitted  to  his  favorite  son,  he  was  respected 
by  all,  as  a  man  of  honor,  generosity,  spirit,  and  veracity  ; 
hence  we  wonder  not  that  Junius  felt  for  him  a  friendly 
sohcitude,  when  accused,  by  some  of  the  city-patriots,  of  mal- 
versation in  his  office,  as  paymaster  of  the  land  forces. 

Do  these  facts  strengthen  or  weaken  our  hypothesis  ? 

In  a  sharp  altercation  between  the  two  friends  in  the  House 
of  Commons,  Mr.  Pitt  took  pains  to  remove  every  idea  of 
personality  to  the  other ;  while  Mr.  Fox  uttered  several  short 
and  sullen  compliments  indicative  of  his  veneration  for  the 
talents  and  open  and  manly  conduct  of  Mr.  Pitt,  who,  notwith- 
standing all  that  has  been  said,  steadily  rejected  the  overtures 
of  Mr.  Fox  to  be  united  whh  him  in  a  proposed  new  adminis- 
tration. We  think  we  could,  with  the  help  of  Lord  Chester- 
field, explain  this,  were  it  to  our  purpose  here  ;  but  we  must 


244  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

not  stray  too  far  from  our  road,  even  in  a  chapter  professedly 
miscellaneous.  We  shall  only  remark,  that  Lord  Bute,  who 
was  not  quite  so  bad  a  man  as  many  in  America  have  supposed, 
but  who  had  more  cunning  than  wisdom,  courted  the  confi- 
dential friendship  of  the  newly  created  Lord  Holland,  in  or- 
der to  make  a  complete  breach  between  him  and  the  noble- 
man whom  Bute  most  dreaded.  We  would  also  remark,  that 
it  appears  that  Lord  Chatham  had  the  like  feelings  towards 
Lord  Holland  as  towards  his  brother-in-law,  George  Grenville, 
— strong  personal  regard  without  political  unity. 

A  sensible  commentator  on  Junius  *  observes,  that  all 
whom  Lord  Bute  could  consult,  whether  whigs  or  tories, 
agreed  in  one  common  desire  to  see  Pitt  and  his  family 
connexions,  the  Grenvilles,  humbled  and  driven  from  of- 
fice before  they  should  be  able  to  fortify  themselves  too 
strongly  to  be  removed.  The  same  commentator  further  re- 
marks, that  "  the  Grenvilles,  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  the  Marquis 
of  Rockingham,  and  their  respective  adherents,  supposed  the 
business  of  government  could  not  go  on,  unless  the  King  should 
implicitly  resign  the  whole  ministerial  powers  into  their  hands  ; 
and  that  they  were  preparing,  by  every  means,  to  secure,  be- 
yond the  possibility  of  disappointment,  the  grand  object  of 
their  expectations  ;  and  that,  not  unconscious  of  the  strength 
of  public  opinion,  they  used  every  artifice  to  make  it  raise 
a  voice  continually  louder  and  louder  in  their  favor  ;  and  that 
Junius,  privy  to  their  secrets,  though  they  might  not  be  con- 
scious of  his,\  was  willing  to  promote,  in  an  exertion  bold- 
er and  of  greater  effort,  than  any  he  had  hitherto  made,  that 
success  of  his  party,  of  which  he  was,  perhaps,  to  share  the 
spoils  ;  that,  with  this  view,  he  wrote  his  Letter  to   the  King, 

*  Mr.  Heron. 

f  "  There  did,  and  perhaps  there  still  does  exist,  a  private  letter  from 
Junius  to  Mr.  Grenville,  professing  political  attachment,  and  at  the 
same  time  discouraging  all  attempts  to  pluck  off  his  mask." — Edin. 
Review  for  June,  1826. 


CHATHAM  OPPOSED  TO  AMERICAN  INDEPENDENCE.    245 

at  a  critical  time,  when  they  hoped  to  force  themselves,  in  a 
body,  into  administration,  by  a  consentaneous  effort." 

Although  Lord  Chatham  was  a  great  friend  to  the  colonies, 
he  never  countenanced  their  independency,  but  uniformly 
maintained  the  supremacy  of  Parliament  over  them,  yet  denying 
its  right  to  tax  them  without  their  consent ',  and  he  opposed, 
with  all  his  powers,  the  rash  attempt  of  George  the  Third  to 
try  the  question  with  America  by  force  of  arms.  As  to  our 
aiming  at  independency,  he  said  he  saw  no  evidence  of  it. 
Dr.  Franklin  declared,  that  he  never  heard  the  wish  expressed 
by  any  order  of  men,  in  any  part  of  America,  nor  under  any 
circumstances,  riotous  or  sober,  from  the  pulpit  to  the  bar- 
room of  a  country  tavern.  There  are  no  traces  of  it  in  the 
writings  or  speeches  of  James  Otis,  nor  a  syllable  to  that  effect 
in  the  Letters  of  Washington,  prior  to  July,  1776.  Neverthe- 
less, the  idea,  the  wish,  the  intention  and  principle  of  it  was 
cherished  in  JYeiv  England  from  the  time  ,of  the  first  Gover- 
nor Winthrop,  to  Governor  Samuel  Adams.  Yes,  the  heroic 
passion  of  independence  from  Britain,  from  Europe,  grew 
with  our  growth,  and  strengthened  with  our  strength  ;  and  at 
last  it  was  warmly  advocated  by  Dr.  FrankHn  in  a  celebrated 
publication  entitled  Common  Sense,  the  joint  work  of  that 
great  philosopher  and  Thomas  Paine.  Franklin  laid  the  foun- 
dation of  the  structure  and  put  up  the  frame-work,  and  Paine 
finished  it  in  his  strong  and  pecuHar  manner.  My  authority 
for  saying  this  is  my  kinsman,  Dr.  Fothergill,  in  whose 
house  I  resided  three  years,  and  between  whom  and  Franklin 
long  subsisted  the  intimacy  of  congenial  minds  respecting 
American  and  British  pqlitics.  Franklin's  agency  in  that  cele- 
brated pamphlet  is  glam^ed  at  in  his  Memoirs. 

With  Franklin,  next  in  affection,  after  America,  was  Eng- 
land ;  with  Fothergill,  next  to  England,  were  the  colonies. 
They  both  wished  that  the  British  colors,  the  emblem  of  sove- 
reignty, should  be  worn  by  America.  With  both,  their  union 
was  a  darling  object.  Fothergill  went  so  far  as  to  express  in 
print  a  wish,  that  the  British  government  would  promote  schol- 


246  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

arsMps  for  Americans  in  their  universities  ;  and  that  they 
would  give  posts  and  benefits  in  this  country  to  such  Ameri- 
cans as  had  studied  in  England  preferably  to  others,  and 
that  the  government  should  permit  such  youths  to  pass  to 
Europe  in  the  king's  ships  gratis.  Dr.  Fothergill  thought  that 
this  would  unite  more  firmly  characters  of  the  first  order,  by 
their  mixing  with  the  British  at  the  universities,  and  diffusing 
thence  a  spirit  of  inquiry  after  America,  of  which  country  the 
English  were  strangely  ignorant,  and  thus  cement  friendships  on 
both  sides ;  and  that  this  would  be  a  more  lasting  benefit  to 
each  country,  than  all  the  ships  and  armies  that  could  be  sent 
across  the  Atlantic.  Few  if  any  Englishmen  was  better  ac- 
quainted with  the  American  colonies  than  Dr.  Fothergill.  He 
communicated  his  ideas,  occasionally,  through  the  London 
newspapers,  in  essays  under  various  signatures,  many  of  which 
I  transcribed  for  the  press.  As  early  as  1765,  when  he  saw 
measures,  which  appeared  to  him  ill-timed  and  impolitic,  he  pub- 
lished a  pamphlet  of  thirty-five  pages,  entitled,  "  Considerations 
relative  to  the  JVorih  American  Colonies,''^  which  evinces  his 
affection  for  both  countries. 

He  was  family-physician  to  most  of  the  old  nobility,  as  well 
as  many  of  the  new,  and  was  occasionally  called  into  consultation 
at  the  bed-side  of  the  highest  in  rank  and  station  5  by  which  he 
had  an  opportunity  of  knowing  the  sentiments  of  the  prime,  as 
well  as  the  secondary  movers  of  the  political  machine, — its 
wheels  as  well  as  its  leaden  weights.  I  well  remember  Lord 
Shelburne  calling  at  Dr.  Fothergill's,  and  leaving  a  copy  of 
"  Common  Sense,''''  at  its  very  first  appearance  in  London. 
For  several  days  the  good  Doctor  appeared  taciturn  and  ab- 
stracted. Within  a  week  perhaps,  he  gave  me  the  pamphlet 
to  read,  charging  me  to  let  no  one  see  it.  I  read  it  as  a 
Spaniard  or  Portuguese  would  read  an  interdicted  book  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  inquisition.  It  gave  to  my  thoughts  a  new  di- 
rection, and  occupied  my  mind  day  and  night.  It  raised  in 
me  a  new  train  of  prospective  ideas, — glorious  ones,  be  sure, 
yet   dreadful, — "  the   battle   of   the   warrior,   with   confused 


SAMUEL  ADAMS  AND  STEPHEN  HOPKINS.  247 

noise,  and  garments  rolled  in  blood  !  "  Franklin  and  Folhergill 
corresponded  now  and  dien,  after  the  former  became  our  minis- 
ter at  the  court  of  France.  The  latter  told  me  that  he  saw  the 
soul  of  Franklin  in  every  page  of  that  forceable  pamphlet. 
I  was  the  bearer  of  a  long  letter,  which  Dr.  Fothergill  deliver- 
ed to  me  open,  for  Dr.  Franklin  in  Paris,  in  the  summer  of 
1780,  being  a  plan  of  reconciliation  and  general  pacification, 
resembling,  in  some  respects,  "  the  Holy  AUiance.^^  f  After 
reading  it.  Dr.  Franklin  said  to  me,  "  Your  kinsman,  and  my 
most  excellent  friend,  has  a  better  opinion  of  the  world  than  I 
have.  He  has  seen  only  the  best  side  of  it.  I  have  seen  both. 
He  judges  men  by  his  own  good  heart  and  candid  mind." 

But  to  return  to  the  subject  of  the  Independence  of  the  Colo- 
nies. The  idea,  nay  die  principle  of  it,  was  more  or  less 
cherished  from  the  beginning  of  the  settlement  of  Massachu- 
setts, especially  in  Boston  ;  and  particularly  by  Samuel  Ad- 
ams, whose  name  and  character  I  revere  as  the  great  file- 
leader  of  our  revolution.  Stephen  HopJcins,  for  many  years 
governor  of  the  colony  of  Rhode  Island,  the  oldest  man  in  our 
first  Congress,  and  the  senior  signer  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence in  July,  1776,  repeatedly  uttered  that  language  to 
confidential  friends.  He  was  in  fact  the  Samuel  Mams  of  Rhode 
Island.  It  is  a  remarkable  circumstance,  that  the  character, 
standing,  and  agency  of  Samuel  Adams,  are  better  known  out 
of  New  England,  than  in  his  native  Boston  ;  for  the  grave  has 
closed  over  nearly  every  one  of  his  fellow-laborers,  and  left 
a  generation  that  knew  him  not. 

Mr.  Adolphus  speaks  of  him,  in  his  History  of  England, 
thus.  "  Samuel  Adams,  a  distinguished  leader  of  the  Ameri- 
can councils,  noted  for  subtlety,  perseverance,  and  inflexibility, 
boasted  in  all  companies  [he  was  no  boaster,  but  a  polite  gen- 
tleman of  modest  carriage],  that  he  had  toiled  twenty  years  to 
accomplish   the  measure  [independency].     During  that  time, 

f  It  was  a  college  of  crowned  heads  to  keep  the  peace  of  the  world, 
by  restraining  those  passions  whence  come  wars  and  fightings. 


248  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

he  had  carried  his  art  and  industry  so  far,  as  to  search  after 
every  rising  genius  in  the  New  England  seminaries,  employed 
his  utmost  abilities  to  fix  in  their  minds  the  principles  of  Ameri- 
can independency,  and  now  triumphed  in  his  success."  * 

The  Rev.  Dr.  William  Gordon,  another  Englishman,  who 
resided  a  number  of  years  near  Boston  as  a  parish  minister, 
says,  "  that  Samuel  Adams  became  a  member  of  the  legisla- 
lature  in  September,  1765  ;  that  he  was  zealously  attached  to 
the  rights  of  Massachusetts  in  particular,  and  the  colonies  in 
general,  and  but  httle  to  his  own  personal  interest ;  tlrat  he 
was  well  qualified  to  second  Mr.  Otis,  and  learned  in  time  to 
serve  his  oivn  political  views  by  the  influence  of  the  other  ; 
that  he  was  soon  noticed  by  the  House,  chosen  and  continued 
their  clerk  from  year  to  year,  by  which  means  he  had  the  cus- 
tody of  their  papers  ;  and  of  these  he  knew  how  to  make  an 
advantage  for  political  purposes.  He  was  frequently  upon  im- 
portant committees,  and  acquired  great  ascendency  by  discov- 
ering a  readiness  to  acquiesce  in  the  proposals  and  amend- 
ments of  others,  while  the  end  aimed  at  by  them  did  not  even- 
tually frustrate  his  leading  designs.  He  showed  a  pliableness 
and  complaisance  in  these  smaller  matters  which  enabled  him, 
in  the  issue,  to  carry  those  of  much  greater  consequence  ; 
and .  there  were,"  says  the  historian,  "  many  favorite  points, 
which  the  '  sons  of  liberty,'  in  Massachusetts  meant  to  carry, 
even  though  the  stamp-act  should  be  repealed^  f 

President  Jefferson,  in  a  letter  to  Samuel  Adams's  grand- 
son, says  of  him,  "  He  was  truly  a  great  man,  wise  in  council, 
fertile  in  resources,  immoveable  in  his  purposes,  and  had,  I 
think,  a  greater  share  than  any  other  member  [of  Congress], 
in  advising  and  directing  our  measures  in  the  northern  war. 
As  a  speaker,  he  could  not  be  compared  with  his  living  col- 
league and  namesake,!  whose  deep  conceptions,  nervous  style, 
and   undaunted   firmness,   made  him  truly  our  bulwark  in  de- 

*  Vol.  ii.  p.  363.         t  Letter  IV.  p.  152.    New  York  edition.  1789. 
\  John  Adams. 


SAMUEL  ADAMS  AND  STEPHEN  HOPKINS.  249 

bate.  But  Samuel  Adams,  although  not  of  fluent  elocution, 
was  so  rigorously  logical,  so  clear  in  views,  abundant  in  sense, 
and  master  always  of  his  subject,  that  he  commanded  the 
most  profound  attention  whenever  he  rose  in  an  assembly, 
where  the  froth  of  declamation  was  heard  with  the  most  sove- 
reign contempt." 

The  following  is  a  letter  from  Mr.  Jefferson  to  the  author, 
dated  Monticello,  January  31,  1819. 

"  Dear  Sir, — Your  letter  of  the  15th  was  received  on  the 
27th,  and  I  am  glad  to  find  the  name  and  character  of  Samuel 
Adams  coming  forward,  and  in  so  good  hands  as  I  suppose 
them  to  be.  I  was  the  youngest  man  but  one  in  the  old 
Congress,  and  he  the  oldest  but  one,  as  I  believe.  His  only 
senior,  I  suppose,  was  Stephen  Hopkins,  of  and  by  whom  the 
honorable  mention  made  in  your  letter  was  richly  merited. 

"  Although  my  high  reverence  for  Samuel  Adams  was  re- 
turned by  habitual  notices  from  him,  which  highly  flattered  me, 
yet  the  disparity  of  age  prevented  intimate  and  confidential 
communications.  I  always  considered  him,  more  than  any 
other  member,  the  fountain  of  our  important  measures  ;  and 
although  he  was  neither  an  eloquent  nor  easy  speaker,  what- 
ever he  said  was  sound,  and  commanded  the  profound  atten- 
tion of  the  House. 

"  In  the  discussions  on  the  floor  of  Congress,  he  reposed 
himself  on  our  main  pillar  in  debate,  Mr.  John  Adams.  These 
two  gentlemen  were  verily  a  host  in  our  councils.  Compari- 
sons with  their  associates,  Northern  or  Southern,  would  an- 
swer no  profitable  purpose ;  but  they  would  suffer  by  com- 
parison with  none.  I  salute  you  with  perfect  esteem  and  respect. 

Th.  Jefferson. 
Dr.  Waterhouse,  Cambridge." 

At  the  close  of  a  very  interesting  letter  written  to  me  by  the 

first  President  Adams,  January  30,  1818,  he  says,    "  If  ever 

human  beings  had  a  right  to  say 

Hos  ego  versiculos  feci,  tidit  alter  hoiiores ; 

and 
Sic  vos  non  vohis  mellificatis,  apes  ; 

32 


250  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

they  were  James  Otis  and  Samuel  Adams.  And  to  ikem 
ought  statues  to  be  erected,  and  not  to  John." 

If  ever'men  labored  for  others,  and  not  for  themselves,  they 
were  those  early  patriots ;  and  should  Boston  ever  honor  her- 
self by  erecting  a  monument  to  Samuel  Adams,  sic  vos  non 
voBis  should  be  inscribed  on  it. 

Whatever  construction  may  be  put  on  it,  I  am  led,  in  honor 
of  truth,  to  concede,  that  the  leading  men  in  the  colonies  of 
Massachusetts  and  Rhode  Island,  and,  I  believe,  Connecticut, 
contemplated  independency  from  the  first  settlement  of  the 
country ;  and  that  Samuel  Adams  was  the  first  man  who  em- 
bodied that  noble  sentiment,  and,  with  caution  and  great  ad- 
dress, diffused  that  doctrine  from  North  to  South,  until  it  be- 
came, in  the  year  seventy-'six,  the  vital  principle  in  our  con- 
stitution. 

The  question,  With  whom,  or  where  commenced  the  revolu- 
tion ?  is  as  difficult  as  that  of  the  first  inventors  of  a  thousand 
good  things.  President  Jefferson  in  a  letter  to  me,  dated  March 
3,  1818,  says,  "  I  suppose  it  would  be  difficult  to  trace  our  revo- 
lution to  its  first  embryo.  We  do  not  know  how  long  it 
was  hatching  in  the  British  cabinet,  before  they  ventured  to 
make  the  first  of  the  experiments  which  were  to  develope  it  in 
the  end,  and  to  produce  complete  parliamentary  supremacy. 
Those  you  mention  in  Massachusetts,  as  preceding  the  stamp- 
act,  might  be  the  first  visible  symptoms  of  that  design.  The 
proposition  of  that  act,  in  1764,  was  the  first  here.  Your  op- 
position, therefore,  preceded  ours,  as  occasion  was  sooner 
given  there  than  here  ;  and  the  truth,  I  suppose,  is,  that  the 
opposition,  in  every  colony,  began  whenever  the  encroachment 
was  presented  to  it.  This  question  of  priority  is  as  the  in- 
quiry would  be,  who  first  of  the  three  hundred  Spartans  offer- 
ed his  name  to  Leonidas.  I  shall  be  happy  to  see  justice  done 
to  the  merits  of  all,  by  the  unexceptionable  umpire  of  dates 
and  facts,  and  especially  from  the  pen  which  is  proposed  to  be 
employed  in  it." 


SAMUEL  ADAMS.  251 

Samuel  Adams  was  graduated  at  the  university  of  Cam- 
bridge in  the  year  1740,  when  he  discussed  the  following  the- 
sis, "  Whether  it  be  lawful  to  resist  the  Supreme  Magistrate, 
if  the  CommomveaJth  cannot  otherwise  he  preserved  ?  "  He 
maintained  the  affirmative,  which  was  remarkable  for  that  time 
and  place  ;  for  it  was  in  presence  of  the  King's  Governor  and 
his  Council,  in  the  reign  of  George  the  Second,  while  Sir 
Robert  Walpole  was  prime  minister,  and  when  these  colonies 
haa  nothing  to  complain  of  from  Britain,  the  aged  monarch  be- 
ing popular,  and  we  Americans  very  loyal.  Then  England 
was  called  our  "  home,''''  and  we  almost  adored  King,  Lords, 
and  Commons,  and  hated  the  very  name  of  a  Frenchman  and 
Spaniard,  and  abhorred,  alike,  the  Pope,  the  Devil,  and  an 
English  Bishop. 

When  Samuel  Adams  attained  his  first  degree  in  the 
arts  at  Cambridge,  John  Adams  was  five  years  old,  and  Jo- 
siah  Quincy  and  Joseph  Warren  yet  unborn.  James  Otis  was 
three  years  after  Samuel  Adams  in  the  catalogue  of  graduates, 
and  Mr.  Quincy  twenty-three  years  after  him.  John  Adams 
was  graduated  in  1755,  which  was  fifteen  years  after  the  gradu- 
ation of  Samuel.  Samuel  Adams  was  distinguished  at  the 
university  for  a  serious  and  retired  cast  of  mind.  He  meant  to 
devote  himself  to  the  gospel  ministry,  yet  he  paid  great  attention 
to  Greek  and  Roman  history.  Livy  and  Tacitus  were  his  fa- 
vorite authors  ;  but  Divinity  was  the  profession  he  meant  to 
live  and  die  by.  What  particularly  diverted  him  from  it,  we 
are  unable  to  say  ;  probably  the  terrible  and  gloomy  part  of 
the  system  of  Calvin  then  in  vogue,  a  system  founded  on  Scrip- 
ture misunderstood. 

The  year  Samuel  Adams  entered  the  university  was  the 
same  in  which  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham,  entered  the  British 
Parliament,  so  that  Mr.  Adams  must  have  seen  the  whole  of 
that  great  statesman's  career,  from  1738  to  1778,  wlien  that 
nobleman  died.  During  Pitt's  administration,  the  Parliament 
was  unanimous  in  supporting  his  measures.  From  1757  to 
1760,  the  British  arms  were  successful  in  every  quarter  of  the 


252  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

globe  ;  the  royal  marine  of  France  was  reduced  to  ten  ships 
of  the  hne  and  a  few  frigates,  while  England  was  at  the  very 
pinnacle  of  her  power  and  glory,  with  thirteen  growing,  happy, 
and  grateful  American  colonies.  But  this  enviable  state  did 
not  last  long.  In  1760  King  George  the  Second  suddenly 
died,  and  his  grandson  reigned  in  his  stead.  Then  came  in 
amongst  us  pohtical  sin  and  oppression,  and  their  shadow,  re- 
venge ;  then  orders  were  sent  from  "  home"  enabling  the 
King's  collectors  to  command  all  sheriffs  and  constables  to  attend 
and  aid  them  in  breaking  open  houses,  stores,  shops,  cellars,  ships, 
bales,  trunks,  &c.  &.c.  to  search  for  goods,  which  had  escaped 
paying  certain  taxes  or  duties,  imposed  by  acts  of  Parliament, 
procured  through  the  influence  of  certain  royal  governors  and 
certain  West  India  planters.  Dreading  the  resistance  of  the 
Bostonians,  the  governor  made  the  experiment  first  in  Salem. 
But  the  Supreme  Court,  then  sitting  in  that  old,  phlegmatic 
town,  ordered  that  the  "  great  question  "  of  the  legality  of 
those  writs  of  assistance  should  be  argued  in  Boston.  It  was 
then,  that  James  Otis  burst  forth,  the  blazing  champion  of  the 
rights  of  the  colonies.  Knowing  he  had  the  law  on  his  side, 
he  gave  a  loose  rein  to  his  oratorial  powers.  Its  coruscations 
and  impetuosity  dazzled  and  bore  down  the  mildness  of  Thach- 
er  and  the  solemnity  of  Gridley.  Such  oratory  was  new  to 
John  Adams,  and  made  a  very  strong  impression  on  his  young 
mind,  and  induced  him  to  estimate  James  Otis  fully  equal  to  his 
value.  He  wa|,  it  is  true,  a  very  daring,  disinterested,  active, 
and  valuable  partisan  ;  yet  was  he  under  the  control  of  cooler 
heads  than  his  own.  Some  very  important  papers  of  that  day 
(1768)  were  sketched  by  Mr.  Otis,  and  then  submitted  to  the 
revision  and  correction  of  Samuel  Adams ;  and  this  was  a  con- 
stant practice  of  that  fiery  orator.  In  fact  there  were  few, 
if  any,  very  important  papers,  published  between  1764  and 
1769,  in  Boston,  that  were  not  revised  by  the  cool  and  solid 
judgment  of  the  New  England  Phocion.  Upon  several  com- 
munications sent  to  printers  by  Mr.  Josiah  Quincy,  was  written, 
"  Let  Samuel  Adams,  Esq.   correct  the  press."     It  cannot  be 


SAMUEL  ADAMS.  253 

supposed,  that  this  meant  Hterary  and  verbal  criticism,  seeing^ 
Adams  was  the  Gamaliel  of  Warren  and  Quincy.  Otis  was  a 
learned  lawyer,  and,  though  generally  charged  plus  with  en- 
thusiasm, was  the  very  character  those  trying  times  re- 
quired (he  dared  to  say  more  in  public  than  any  other  man) ; 
times,  which  also  required  the  cooler  heads  of  Samuel  Adams, 
Joseph  Haivley,  and  James  Bowdoin,  in  Massachusetts,  and  of 
John  Dickinson  in  Pennsylvania,  and  Stephen  Hopkins  in 
Rhode  Island. 

"Mr.  Samuel  Adams,"  says  the  historian  Gordon,  "long  since 
said,  in  small,  confidential  companies,  '  This  country  shall  be  in- 
dependent, and  we  will  he  satisfied  with  nothing  short  of  it.''  "  * 

*  An  anecdote  may  show  Mr.  Adams's  address  and  management  in 
a  popular  assembly  or  "  Town-meeting,''^  wlien  one  portion  of  their 
business  was  an  association  not  to  import  goods  from  Britain  into  Bos- 
ton, until  certain  grievances  were  redressed. 

A  Mr.  Mc  ,  a  Scotchman  and  large  importer,  refused  to  join 

the  association.  The  Scotch,  whatever  they  were  in  former  reigns,  were 
remarkable  for  their  loyalty  to  George  the  Third,  and  are  generally 
pretty  stubborn  where  their  interest  is  concerned.     It  was  reported  to 

a  large  town-meeting,  convened  in  Fanueil  Hall,  that  Mr.  M^  

still  refused  to  put  his  name  to  the  non-importation  agreement.  Some 
were  wroth  on  the  occasion,  which  Mr.  Samuel  Adams  by  no  means 
encouraged,  for  the  suaviier  in  modo  was  a  trait  in  his  energetic  char- 
acter. The  committee  was  directed  to  call  on  the  recusant  again ; 
they  returned  with  the  same  answer ;  when  Mr.  Adams  rose  up  and 
moved,  that  the  meeting  (about  two  thousand  persons)  should  re- 
solve itself  into  a  committee  of  the  whole  house,  and  wait  upon  Mr. 

M^ ,  at  the  close  of  the  meeting,  to  urge  his  compliance  with 

the  general  wish  ;  which  being  agreed  without  a  dissenting  voice,  they 
proceeded  to  transact  the  business  before  them,  f  Mr.  Adams  knew, 
that  Mc  had  friends  in  the  meeting,  some  of  whom  im- 
mediately slipped  away  to  inform  him,  that  the  ivliole  body  would,  as  a 
committee,  wait  upon  him  at  the  close  of  the  meeting.  The  conse- 
quence was,  as  Mr.  Adams  expected.  In  the  midst  of  their  delibera- 
tions on  other  subjects,  in  pushes  Mr.  M" ,  all  in  a  foam,  and 

bowing  to  the  chairman  and  to  Mr.  Adams,  told  them  that  he  was 

t  After  this  Samuel  and  John  Adams  opposed,  in  Cohgross,  the  non-importation. scheme,  lost 
the  country  should  be  exhausted  ot'ceitain  necessary  articles  when  they  came  to  fight. 


254  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

When  the  noted  Mr.  Galloway  and  a  few  of  his  ignorant 
adherents  were  for  entering  their  protest  in  Congress  against  an 
open  rupture  with  Britain,  Samuel  Adams,  rising  slowly  from  his 
seat,  said,  "  I  should  advise  persisting  in  our  struggle  for  lib- 
erty, though  it  were  revealed  from  Heaven,  that  nine  hundred 
and  ninety-nine  were  to  perish,  and  only  one  freeman  of  a 
thousand  survive,  and  retain  his  liberty.  That  one  freeman 
must  possess  more  virtue  and  enjoy  more  happiness,  than  a 
thousand  slaves  :  let  him  propagate  his  like,  and  transmit  to 
them  what  he  had  so  nobly  preserved."  But  Mr.  James  Otis 
maintained,  "  that  we  must  and  ought  to  yield  obedience  to 
an  act  of  Parliament,  though  erroneous,  till  repealed  ;  that  the 
power  of  Parliament  was  uncontrolable  but  by  themselves." 
Samuel  and  John  Adams  spoke  a  different  language.* 

Chalmers,  who  is  respectable  authority,  strengthens  our  as- 
sertions of  an  undeviating  spirit  of  independency  which  ac- 

ready  and  willing  to  put  his  name  to  the  non-importation  agreement ; 
after  which  Samuel  Adams  pointed  to  a  seat  near  him,  with  a  polite, 
condescending  bow  of  protection  in  the  presence  of  the  people,  which 
quieted  the  alarm  of  the  discreet  Scotchman,  who  was  struck  with 
dread  at  the  idea  of  two  thousand  people  presenting  themselves  before 
his  dwelling,  and  wished  to  avoid  the  comminatory  honor.  The  mob, 
which  destroyed  Lord  Mansfield's  house  and  set  London  on  fire  in 
twenty  places,  was  not  composed  of  any  of  those  persons  who  were 
collected,  in  the  day-time,  in  St.  George's  Fields,  and  who  marched  to 
the  Parliament  house,  led  by  the  crazy  Lord  George  Gordon,  who  had 
no  hand  in  the  riots  ;  yet  was  he  tihe  remote  cause  of  them. 

Thus  did  Samuel  Adams,  poor  as  Phocion,  devote  a  large  portion 
of  his  life  to  the  great  cause  of  America,  both  as  a  contriver  and  exe- 
cutor, by  steady  and  unwearied  steps  that  never  faltered.  No  mon- 
arch or  state  could,  by  rewards  and  honors,  hire  a  man  to  neglect  his 
own  domestic  affairs,  and  devote  every  hour  of  his  life  to  offices  of  all 
kinds,  as  did  this  renowned  patriot ;  who,  but  for  the  death  of  his 
only  son  (who  left  a  few  thousand  dollars)  must  have  been  buried  at 
the  public  expense. 

*  John  Adams,  speaking  in  warm  commendation  of  Jefferson,  says, 
"  Though  a  silent  member,  he  was  so  prompt,  frank,  explicit,  and  de- 
cisive upon  committees, — not  even  Samuel  Adams  was  more  so, — 
that  he  soon  seized  my  heart." 


TESTIMONY  OF  CHALMERS.  255 

luated  the  first  settlers  of  New  England.  This  gentleman 
wrote  his  "  Political  Annals  of  the  United  Colonies,"  under 
the  influence,  and  probably  by  direction  of  the  British  govern- 
ment, to  prove  the  crying  sin,  that  Massachusetts  always  aimed 
at  independence.  The  work  was  written  during  our  contro- 
versy with  England.  The  author  was  a  secretary  in  the  colo- 
nial department,  and  had,  as  far  as  documents  go,  the  best 
means  of  information.  He  says,  Book  I.  ch.  vi.  "  Several 
persons  of  considerable  consequence  in  the  nation,  who  had 
adopted  the  principles  of  the  Puritans,  and  who  wished  to  en- 
joy their  own  mode  of  worship,  formed  the  resolution  of  emi- 
grating to  Massachusetts.  But  they  felt  themselves  inferior 
neither  to  the  governor  nor  assistants  of  the  company.  They 
saw  and  dreaded  the  inconvenience  of  being  governed  by  laws 
made  for  them  without  their  consent ;  and  it  appeared  more 
rational  to  them,  that  the  colony  should  be  ruled  by  those  who 
made  it  the  place  of  their  residence,  than  by  men  dwelling  at 
the  distance  of  three  thousand  miles,  over  whom  they  had 
no  control.  At  the  same  time,  therefore,  that  they  proposed 
to  transport  themselves,  their  families,  and  their  estates  to  that 
country,  they  insisted  that  the  charter  should  be  transmitted 
with  them,  and  that  the  corporate  powers  which  were  con- 
ferred by  it,  should  be  executed,  in  future,  in  New  Eng- 
land." * 

*  It  gives  us  pleasure  to  cite  from  any  British  work  marked  with  the 
like  good  sense,  ability,  and  candor,  as  that  bjr  George  Chalmers,  Esq., 
after  reading  such  accounts  of  our  military  affairs  and  measures,  as  are 
given  by  Stedman,  Bisset,  and  Adolphus.  Such  provoking  misrepresenta- 
tions tend,  more  tlian  any  thing  else,  to  perpetuate  animosities-  The 
former  speaks  of  the  Americans  scalping  some  of  the  British  prisoners 
at  Lexington  !  By  their  accounts  the  British  had  only  to  march  up  to  the 
Americans,  and  certain  victory  was  the  consequence  ;  whereas  all  Bos- 
ton, men  and  women,  saw  the  British  soldiers  fly  twice  before  an  infe- 
rior number  of  raw  militia  at  Bunker  Hill,  and  on  several  other  occasions. 
Three  years  afterwards,  Lord  George  Germaine  actually  sent  a  vast 
number  of  live  sheep  and  hogs  to  feed  their  conquering  army,  while 
there  were  miUions  of  those  brutes  belonging  to  American  farmers ; 
which  the  owners  of  them  were  able  to  protect  against  both  British 


256  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

Beside  civil  liberty,  our  ancestors  came  with  a  determi- 
nation to  enjoy  religious  freedom,  and  they  obtained  it. 
"  They  left  their  native  land,"  says  Junius  to  the  King, 
'•'  in  search  of  freedom,  rm&  found  it  in  a  desert."  To  escape 
from  the  tyranny  of  the  English  hierarchy  was  a  powerful  mo- 
tive with  the  first  emigrants.  Archbishop  Laud  kept  a  jealous 
eye  over  New  England.  Charles  the  Second  and  Massachusetts, 
according  to  Chalmers,  mutually  hated  anti  contemned  and 
feared  each  other,  because  the  one  suspected  its  principles  of 
attachment,  and  the  other  dreaded  an  invasion  of  its  privileges. 
The  General  Court  very  early  resolved,  "  That  the  patent  or 
charter  (under  God)  was  the  first  and  main  foundation  of  the 
civil  polity  of  Massachusetts  ;  that  the  governor  and  company 
are,  by  the  patent,  a  body  pohtic,  which  is  vested  with  power 
to  make  freemen ;  that  they  have  authority  to  choose  a  gover- 
nor, deputy-governor,  assistants,  and  select  representatives ; 
that  this  government  has  ability  to  set  up  all  kinds  of  ofiices  ; 
that  the  governor,  deputy-governor,  assistants,  and  select  depu- 
ties have  full  jurisdiction,  both  legislative  and  executive,  for  the 
government  of  the  people  here,  without  appeals  (excepting 
laws  repugnant  to  the  laws  of  England)  ;  that  this  company  is 
privileged  to  defend  itself  against  all  who  shall  attempt  its  an- 
noyance ;  that  any  imposition,  prejudicial  to  the  country,  con- 
trary to  any  of  its  just  ordinances  (not  repugnant  to  the  laws  of 
England),  is  an  infringement  of  its  rights."  *  Yet  our  resist- 
ance to  British  encroachments,  in  later  times,  has  been  stigma- 
tized by  the  odious  name  of  rebellion  I  Our  ancestors  quitted 
Old  England  with  a  determination  to  enjoy  self-government  in 
the  New  ;  and  we  always  acted  up  to  this  heroic  resolution ; 
for  as  early  as  1652  a  mint  was  erected  in  Boston,  when  the 
government  exercised  that  prerogative  of  sovereignty,  coining 
money. \     After  the  death  of  Oliver  Crommell,  whom  our  fore- 

and  German  marauders.     Such  facts  must  ever  put  to  shame  boastful 
declamation,  and  that  gasconade  which  marks  and  mars  too  many  of 
the  British  writers. 
*  Chalmers,  Book  I.  p.  243.       t  Bearing  the  stamp  of  a  pine  tree. 


JOHN  HANCOCK.  257 

fathers  feared  and  flattered,  Massachusetts  refused  to  acknowl- 
edge the  authority  of  his  son  Richard  any  more  than  that  of 
the  ParHament,  or  Protector,  because  all  submission,  says 
Chahners,  would  have  been  inconsistent  tvith  her  indepen- 
dence. 

Lord  Chatham  and  Camden  doubtless  knew  all  these  things, 
while  Lord  JVorth  and  his  short-sighted  master  were  as  igno- 
rant of  them  as  Lord  Bute  himself. 

One  of  the  most  fortunate  steps  of  the  sagacious  Samuel 
Adams  was  his  yoking  in  with  him  the  very  rich  and  accom- 
plished John  Hancock,  Esq.  The  cause  of  self-govern- 
ment is  under  great  obligations  to  both.  .  One  gave  to  it  his 
great  mind,  and  the  other  his  fortune  ;  one  obtained  contempo- 
rary celebrity,  the  other,  like  Napoleon,  trusted  posterity. 

How  rarely  do  we  find  two  men  alike  !  Minds  differ  as 
much  as  countenances,  yet  that  difference  impedes  not  union. 
Adams  and  Hancock  were  very  much  unlike  each  other.  To- 
gether they  formed  that  potent  weapon,  the  arroiv, — the  ef- 
ficient steel  and  the  feather.  Like  Adams,  Mr.  Hancock  was 
a  gentleman  of  an  university  education  and  cultivated  taste  ;  he 
was  a  remarkably  good  speaker,  and  resembled  an  English  no- 
bleman in  dress,  manners,  style  of  living,  and  equipage,  and  was 
grievously  tormented  with  gout.  I  have  thought  that  the  char- 
acter of  Mr.  Hancock  was  a  compound  of  that  of  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle  and  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  both  of  whom  bustled  at 
the  court  of  London  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  George  the 
Third  ;  while  that  of  Mr.  Adams  could  not  be  so  readily  paral- 
leled. It  partook  of  our  conception  of  Phocion  among  the 
Greeks,  and  of  Cato  among  the  Romans.  With  a  counte- 
nance expressive  of  benevolence  and  good  humor  was  united 
the  inflexible  virtue  of  a  Regidus,  dignified  by  a  perfect  com- 
mand of  temper. 

That  my  venerated  friend,  John  Adams,  was  as  staunch 
in  his  principles  of  independency  as  Samuel,  no  one  can 
doubt,  who  knows  the  man  and  his  whole  history  ;  but  being 
a  professional  man,  he   had   neither  the  time  nor  opportunity 


358  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

of  manifesting  them  so  early,  by  a  year  or  two,  as  his  name- 
sake.* The  clear  and  cogent  paragraphs  and  essays  of  Samuel 
appeared,  like  those  of  Junius,  in  newspapers,  prompt  and  to 
the  purpose  aimed  at;  whereas  those  of  John  were  more  labor- 
ed works,  rich  in  authorities,  profound  in  conception,  strong  in 
expression,  and  never  confuted.  Samuel  Adams  absolutely 
wielded  that  powerful  engine,  a  free  press,  with  the  strong  arm 
of  a  giant.  But  that  was  not  all ;  he  stood  at  the  very  ave- 
nue of  public  opinion  as  it  regarded  the  cause  of  freedom  or 
whiggism.  James  Otis  was  distinguished  for  the  fire  of  genius, 
a  blaze  of  eloquence,  and  a  daring  manner  of  expressing  his  bril- 
liant ideas ;  yet  he  submitted  his  essays  invariably  to  the  men- 
tal strainer  of  the  great  patriot,  as  did  other  less  distinguished 
ones.  One  day  John  and  Samuel  Adams  were  walking  in  the 
Boston  Mall,  and  when  they  came  opposite  the  stately  man- 
sion of  Mr.  Hancock,  the  latter  turning  to  the  former,  said, 
with  emphasis,  "  I  have  done  a  very  good  thing  for  our  cause 
in  the  course  of  the  past  week,  by  enlisting  the  master  of  that 
house  into  it.  He  is  well  disposed  and  has  great  riches,  and 
we  can  give  him  consequence  to  enjoy  them."  And  Mr.  Han- 
cock did  not  disappoint  his  high  expectations  ;  for  in  spite  of 
his  occasional  capriciousness,  owing  partly  to  disease,  he  threw 
all  the  weight  of  his  fortune  and  extraordinary  popularity  into 
the  scale  of  opposition  to  British  encroachments.  Every  body 
knows,  that  Hancock  and  Adams  were  the  only  men  ex- 
cepted from  the  general  amnesty  by  Gage's  proclamation,  issued 
by  royal  authority,  which  capped  the  climax  of  their  renown. 
It  was  not,  however,  until  the  year  1768,  that  the  doctrine 
of  independence  assumed  something  Hke  a  system.  If  not  an 
absolute,  active  body  and  soul,  it  was  an  embryo,  which  has 
grown  in  due  time  to  a  young  Hercules,  who,  from  first  strang- 
ling serpents  in  his  cradle,  has,  in  his  adult  state,  performed  his 

*  Samuel  and  John  Adams  had  the  same  Proavus,  or  great  grand- 
father, and,  of  course,  were  second  cousins  tcf  each  other.  Their  com- 
mon ancestor  emigrated  from  Braintree  in  England,  and  alighted  upon 
Mount  Wollaston  ;  and  called  the  town,  after  his  native  place.  Brain- 
tree  ;  a  portion  of  which  is  now  the  town  of  Qiiincy. 


PORTRAIT  OF  SAMUEL  ADAMS.  259 

series  of  wonders ;  and  is  now  transferred  among  the  heavenly- 
signs. 

1  cannot  leave  this  sketch  of  the  character  of  Samuel  Ad- 
ams, without  adding  the  finishing  stroke,  expressive  of  his  mag- 
nanimity. He  always  held  up  to  an  admiring  populace  the 
splendid  picture  of  his  friend  Hancock,  while  he  himself  stood 
behind  it,  without  allowing  so  much  as  his  little  finger  to  be 
seen.* 

After  the  death  of  Governor  Hancock,  Mr.  Adams  was 
chosen  Governor  of  Massachusetts  (in  1794),  and  resigned  the 
station  after  sustaining  it  three  years. 

The  son  of  Oxenbridge  Thacher,  whom  we  have  already 
mentioned,  preached  his  funeral  sermon,  and  said  justly  of 
him,  "  The  dignity  of  his  manners  was  well  expressed  by  the 
majesty  of  his  countenance  ;  an  index  of  a  mind  never  debased 
by  grovelling  ideas,  nor  occupied  in  contemplating  low  pursuits  ; 
yet  this  appearance  was  accompanied  with  a  suavity  of  tem- 
per, qualifying  him  for  those  charities  and  graces  so  highly  or- 
namental to  the- most  sublime  and  dignified  character.  Few 
are  there  who  better  discharged  the  social  relations  of  life ; 
neither  would  it  be  easy  to  find  a  iriore  tender  husband,  more 
affectionate  parent,  or  more  faithful  friend.  He  would  easily 
relax  from  severer  care  and  study,  to  enjoy  the  delight  of  pri- 
vate conversation  ;  so  that  some,  who  disliked  his  politics, 
loved  and  revered  him  as  a  neighbour  and  friend.  But  though 
he  could  thus  disrobe  himself  from  more  elevated  duties  to  at- 
tend the  calls  of  common  life,  yet  his  conduct  and  manners 
embraced  such  correct  decorum  as  never  to  deserve  a  re- 
proof from  the  wise  and. good.     His  house  was  the  seat  of  do- 

*  /.  Mams  and  T.  Jefferson  retained  their  characteristic  facul- 
ties to  the  last,  particularly  the  latter.  But  not  quite  so,  Samuel 
Mams.  Memory  seemed  to  slip  away  from  him  faster  tlian  in 
either  of  the  others  ;  and  though  he  lost  not  his  reasoning'  powers,  the 
operation  of  his  mind  seemed  like  that  of  a  complicated  machine  al- 
most worn  out  by  its  incessant  action  ;  yet  it  never  lost  its  balance, 
but  suffered  a  gradual  and  uniform  decay,  like  falling  to  sleep  througli 
weariness,  the  result  of  a  regular  and  temperate  life. 


260  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

mestic  peace,  of  method  and  regularity.  In  a  word,  to  borrow 
the  language  of  a  very  great  man,  in  describing  the  life  and 
manners  of  a  very  good  one, — "  When  did  his  vpalls  ever  wit- 
ness any  tumult  or  dissipation;  when  was  any  spectacle  or 
conduct  either  to  be  seen  or  heard  within  them  inconsistent 
with  the  discipline  of  a  most  venerable  and  holy  man."  [Cice- 
ro's Oration  for  Deiotarus,  Governor  of  Galatia.] 

Yet  is  there  no  monumental  stone,  ere(jted  any  where,  of  this 
meritorious  man,  and  no  other  memorial  but  what  is  upon  pa- 
per written  by  others  to  tell  that  he  ever  existed  ! — if,  in- 
deed, we  may  except  a  brass 'field-piece,  dedicated  to  him  by 
the  general  Congress,  at  Philadelphia,  on  which  is  inscribed, 
in  bold  rehef,  these  words  ; 

"The 

ADAMS. 

Sacred  to  Liberty. 

This  is  one  of  four  cannon,  which  constituted  the  whole  train 

of  Field  Artillery, 

Possessed  by  the  British  Colonies  of 

North  America, 

At  the   Commencement  of  the  war   on  the 

19th  of  April,  1775. 

This  cannon  and  its  fellow,  belonging  to  a  number  of 

citizens  of  Boston,   were  used  in  many 

engagements  during  the  war. 

The  other  two,   the  property  of  the  Government  of 

Massachusetts,  were  taken  by  the  enemy. 

By  order  of  the  United  States, 

In  Congress  assembled, 

May  19th, 

1788." 

Why  this  brass  field-piece  is  not  placed  on  the  floor  of  our 
State  House  near  to  the  fine  marble  Statue  of  Washington, 
is  a  question  hard  to  answer  at  this  time. 


CHAPTER  X. 


PARALLELISM     BETWEEN    JUNIUs's    LETTERS    AND    CHATHAM'S 
SPEECHES. 


Should  these  pages  ever  be  read  beyond  the  bounds  of 
these  United  States,  the  distant  reader  may  form  some  idea 
of  the  great  American  question  from  the  preceding  chapter, 
brief  as  it  is.  He  will  see  the  opinion  of  that  oracle  of  the 
law,  Earl  Camden,  respecting  the  right  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment to  tax  the  Americans  loithout  their  consent.  Every  one 
knows  the  opinion  of  Lord  Chatham  and  of  the  leading  whigs 
of  England,  who,  on  that  subject,  made  a  common  cause  with 
the  Americans,  notwithstanding  the  King  ventured  to  bring 
that  great  question  to  trial  before  the  grand  jury  of  both 
countries  and  the  judgment-seat  of  the  world*. 

If  the  foreigner  should  pursue  the  subject,  he  will  find,  that 
Lord  JVorth,  the  "  King's  Attorney,"  was,  in  this  trial,  a 
timid  man,  betraying  misgivings  at  every  step,  making  it  evident 
that  he  acted  not  from  himself,  but  from  the  Throne,  if  not 
from  behind  it.  On  the  other  side,  he  may  see  that  the  first 
Enghsh  settlers  of  Massachusetts  quitted  their  home,  and  came 
to  a  wilderness  to  enjoy  self-government,  civil  and  religious, 
with  a  determination  to  maintain  it ;  and  that  they  did  enjoy  it, 
and  prospered,  until  after  General  Amherst  completed  the  con- 
quest of  Canada.  He  will  also  learn,  that  the  colonies  gene- 
rously submitted  to  a  pretty  heavy  external  tax  under  the  guise 


262  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

of  regulations  of  trade,  as  a  contribution  for  protection,  and  in 
conformity  to  the  haughty  navigation  act ;  but  that  they  ever 
obstinately  resisted  the  smallest  internal  taxation. 

The  distant  reader  may  perceive,  that,  although  Samuel 
Adams  was  the  first  apostle  who  preached  Independency,  yet 
It  was  a  2)>'incij7le  cherished  by  the  first  emigrants,  and  nour- 
ished in  New  England,  from  the  time  of  the  Jirst  Charles, 
till  we  secured  it  by  force  of  arms  in  lll(\.  He  will  see  also, 
that  the  Boston  apostle  of  it  preached,  as  did  the  first  apostles 
of  a  still  better  cause,  to  a  few  fishermen  and  mechanics  near 
the  seashore,  and  they  to  others,  till  it  spread,  like  the  gos- 
pel, from  humble  persons  and  despised  places,  and  shook  all 
that  could  then  be  shaken  in  certain  kingdoms.  Since  which, 
South  America  has  listened  to  the  doctrine ;  degenerated 
Greece  has  welcomed  it ;  and  Turkey  cannot  much  longer 
keep  her  eyes  entirely  closed  to  its  hght,  seeing  Russia  has 
awakened,  after  her  long,  cold  night  of  sleep. 

But  let  us  attend  to  our  avowed  object,  the  valorous  knight 
m  a  mask  and  armour  of  polished  steel,  and  lay  before  the 
reader  such  passages  from  his  writings,  and  from  the  re- 
ported speeches  of  Lord  Chatham,  as  show  their  consimili- 
tude  of  sentiment  and  even  phraseology,  in  order  to  illustrate 
the  very  high  probability,  that  both  emanated  from  the  same 
mind. 

With  this  in  View,  we  cannot  do  better,  than  quote  a  part  of 
two  chapters  from  "  Junius  Identified,"  a  pleasant  book, 
pubhshed  without  a  name,  a  few  years  since,  in  London,  in 
order  to  prove  that  Sir  Philip  Francis  was  the  author  of  the 
Letters  in  question.  The  work  was  re-printed  in  America  ; 
and  from  it  I  learn,  that  it  was  written  by  Mr.  John  Taylor,  a 
bookseller  in  London.  If  so,  he  adds  one  more  to  the  num- 
ber of  respectable  writers  belonging  to  that  class.  I  give  his 
own  words.  "  The  compiler  of  this  investigation  was  acci- 
dentally turning  over  the  pages  of  '  Almonh  Anecdotps  of  Lord 
Chatham,'  when  his  eye  was  caught  by  several  passages  so 
much  in  the  style  of  Junius,  as  to  call  forth  this  observation, 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  263 

that  either  Lord  Chatham  was  the  author  of  the  Letters,  or 
Junius  had  reported  Lord  Chatham's  speeches." 

Whether  Mr.  Taylor  unkickily  took  the  left  hand  road,  and  I 
the  right,  is  submitted  to  the  determination  of  the  reader. 

For  myself  I  was  struck  and  strongly  impressed  with  the 
consimilarity  long  before  Almon's  Anecdotes  of  X<o?y^  Chat- 
ham were  published,  and  have  expressed  this  opinion,  occa- 
sionally, during  the  last  forty  years  of  my  life.  In  contem- 
plating the  subject,  from  time  to  time,  and  comparing  one  thing 
with  another,  and  scanning  the  powers,  conduct,  and  characters 
of  men,  during  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  George  the  Sec- 
ond and  the  first  ten  years  of  his  grandson,  George  the  Third, 
I  became  rivetted  in  the  opinion,  that  Lord  Chatham  was  the 
author  of  the  Letters  in  question,  and  that  no  other  man  could 
be.  Li  the  citation  of  parallel  passages  the  reader  has  only  to 
substitute,  instead  of  the  name  of  Sir  Philip  Francis  and  Ju- 
nius, that  of  Lord  Chatham  and  Junius,  and  our  object,  in 
this  portion  of  our  disquisition,  will  be  answered.  On  the  re- 
view of  the  whole,  the  reader  will  see  how  one  part  coheres 
with  the  other. 

Beside  congeniality  in  political  principle  and  moral  senti- 
ment, there  is  a  remarkable  similarity  in  metaphors  and  fibres 
in  the  writings  of  Junius  and  the  speeches  of  Chatham.  We 
shall  mention  some  of  them. 

Junius  closes  one  of  his  letters  with  a  simile.  Considered  by 
some  the  finest  in  our  language. — "  Private  credit  is  wealth, 
public  honor  is  security.  The  feather  that  adorns  the  royal 
bird,  supports  his  flight.  Strip  him  of  his  plumage,  and  you 
fix  him  to  the  earth."  Now,  unless  Junius  was  Chatham, 
this  beautiful  metaphor  savours  of  plagiary. 

Lord  Chatham  said,  in  the  House  of  Peers, — "  My  Lords, 
I  revere  the  just  prerogative  of  the  crown,  and  would  contend 
for  it  as  warmly  as  for  the  rights  of  the  people.  They  are 
linked  together,  and  naturally  support  each  other.  I  would 
not  touch  a  feather  of  the  prerogative.  The  expression,  per- 
haps,  is  too  light ;    but  since  1  have   made  use  of  it,  let  me 


264  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

add,  that  the  entire  command  and  power  of  directing  the  local 
disposition  of  the  army  is  the  royal  prerogative, — is  the  master^ 
feather  in  the  eagle's  wing ;  and  if  I  were  permitted  to  carry 
the  allusion  a  little  farther,  I  should  say, — they  have  disarmed 
the  imperial  bird, — the  '  ministrum  fulminis  alitem.'  The 
army  is  the  thunder  of  the  crown.  The  ministry  have  tied  up 
the  hand  which  should  direct  the  bolt." — Do  we  not  here  see 
the  germ  in  Chatham,  of  which  the  "^rst  quotation  was  the 
flower  of  Junius  ? 

But  it  is  not  the  similarity  of  figures  so  much  as  it  is 
the  train  of  thought,  the  consimilarity  of  mind,  which  runs 
through  the  speeches  of  Chatham,  and  pervades  the  Letters 
of  Junius,  that  has  tended  to  convince  me,  that  the  speeches 
of  the  one  and  the  Letters  of  the  other  flowed  from  the  same 
clear  intellectual  fountain. 

We  here  present  our  readers  with  a  series  of  extracts, 
selected  and  arranged  in  order  to  prove,  that  the  report- 
er of  the  speeches,  namely.  Sir  Philip  Francis,  was  the 
identical  author  of  the  Letters  ;  whereas  we  contend,  that  the 
great  orator  himself  was,  in  fact,  the  penman  of  those  cele- 
brated productions,  and  we  offer  to  our  readers  these  parallel 
pasatiges  as  evidence  of  it.  They  are  taken  from  the  reports 
of  two.  important  debates  in  the  House  of  Lords;  one  on  the 
ninth  of  January,  and  the  other  on  the  twenty-second  of  the 
same  month,"  1770,  twelve  months  after  the  first  Letter  of 
Junius  appeared  ;  and  but  a  few  weeks  after  the  date  of  his 
famous  Letter  to  the  King  ; — in  a  word,  in  the  height  of  the 
energies  of  the  letter-writer,  and  during  the  full  blaze  of  the 
eloquence  of  the  orator. 

PARALLEL    PASSAGES     FROM    LORD     CHATHAM's    SPEECHES  AND 
JUNIUs's  LETTERS. 

Lord  Chatham  said,  that  "  he  was  satisfied  there  was  a 
power  in  some  degree  arbitrary,  with  which  the  constitution 
trusted  the  crown,  to  be  made  use  of  under  correction  of  the 
legislature,  and  at  the  hazard  of  the  minister,  upon  any  sudden 
emergency,  or  unforeseen  calamity,  which  might  threaten  the 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  265 

welfare  of  the  people  or  the  safety  of  the  state.  That  on  this 
principle  he  had  himself  advised  a  measure,  which  he  knew 
was  not  strictly  legal;  but  he  recommended  it  as  a  measure  of 
necessity,  to  save  a  starving  people  from  famine,  and  had  sub- 
mitted to  the  judgment  of  his  country.^'  * 

Junius.  "  That  Parliament  may  review  the  acts  of  a  min- 
ister is  unquestionable  ;  but  there  is  a  wide  difference  between 
saying  that  the  crown  has  a  legal  power,  and  that  ministers 
may  act  at  their  peril.  Instead  of  asserting  that  the  proclama- 
tion was  legal,  he  [Lord  Camden]  should  have  said,  '  My 
Lords,  I  know  tiie  proclamation  was  illegal,  but  I  advised  it 
because  it  was  indispensably  necessary  to  save  the  kingdom 
from  famine,  and  I  submit  myself  to  the  justice  and  mercy  of 
my  country.''  " 

Chatham  said,  "  that  the  shuation  of  our  affairs  was  un- 
doubtedly a  matter  of  moment,  and  highly  worthy  their  Lord- 
ships' consideration  ;  but  that  he  declared  with  grief,  there 
were  other ^latters  still  more  important,  and  more  urgently 
demanding  their  attention.  He  meant  the  distractions  and  di- 
visions which  prevailed  in  every  part  of  the  empire.  He  la- 
mented the  unhappy  measure,  which  had  divided  the  colonies 
from  the  mother  country,  and  which  he  feared  had  drawn 
them  into  excesses  which  he  could  not  justify.  He  owned  his 
natural  partiality  for  America,  and  was  inclined  to  make  allow- 
ance even  for  these  excesses.  That  they  ought  to  be  treated 
with  tenderness,  for  in  his  sense,  they  were  ebullitions  of  liber- 
ty, which  broke  out  upon  the  skin,  and  were  a  sign,  if  not  of 
a  perfect,  at  least  of  a  vigorous  constitution,  and  must  not  be 
driven  in  too  suddenly,  lest  they  should  strike  to  the  heart.'''' 

Junius.  "  No  man  regards  an  eruption  upon  the  surface, 
when  the  noble  parts  are  invaded,  and  he  feels  a  moriification 
approaching  his  heart.'^ 

*  Prohibiting  the  exportation  of  corn  in  a  year  of  scarcity. 
34 


266  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

"  I  shall  only  say,  give  me  a  healthy,  vigorous  consti- 


tution, and  I  shall  hardly  consult  my  looking-glass  to  discover 
a  blemish  upon  my  ski  i.^' 

Chatham  said,  "  that  liberty  was  a  plant  that  deserved  to  be 
cherished,  that  he  loved  the  tree,  and  wished  well  to  every 
branch  of  it ;  that,  like  the  vine  in  scripture,  it  had  spread 
from  East  to  West,  had  em^'Draced  whole  nations  with  its 
branches,  and  sheltered  them  under  its  leaves.  That  the 
Americans  had  purchased  their  liberty  at  a  dear  rate,  since 
they  had  quitted  their  native  country,  and  gone  in  search  of 
freedom  to  a  desert.''^ 

Junius.  "  They  [the  Americans]  left  their  native  land  in 
search  of  freedom,  and  found  it  in  a  desert.''^ 

Now,  the  passage  from  Junius  bears  the  date  of  December 
19,  1769,  and  the  other  was  spoken  by  Chatham  January  9, 
1770.  "In  this  instance,"  says  Mr.  Taylor,  "the  speech 
copies  the  letters  ;  but  to  suppose  that  Chatham  and  Junius 
reciprocally  borrowed  from  each  other,  is  to  encoiaiter  a  great- 
er difficulty  for  the  sake  of  avoiding  a  less."  True,  sir  ;  but 
on  our  hypothesis,  every  difficulty  is  removed  by  supposing 
that  Junius  felt,  thought,  and  wrote  like  Chatham,  in  spite 
of  all  his  efforts  at  concealment. 

Chatham  said,  "  that  it  was  the  duty  of  that  House  to  inquire 
into  the  causes  of  the  notorious  dissatisfaction  expressed  by 
the  English  nation,  to  state  those  causes  to  the  sovereign,  and 
then  to  give  him  their  best  advice  in  what  manner  he  ought  to 
act.  That  the  privileges  of  the  House  of  Peers,  however 
transcendent,  however  appropriated  to  them,  stood,  in  fact, 
upon  the  broad  bottom  of  the  People.  They  were  no  longer 
in  the  condition  of  the  barons,  their  ancestors,  who  had  sepa- 
rate interests,  and  separate  strength  to  support  them.  The 
rights  of  the  greatest  and  of  the  meanest  subjects  now  stood 
upon  the  same  foundation, — the  security  of  law,  common  to  allJ'^ 

Junius,  two  months  after,  makes  the  same  declaration  in 
different  words.  "  However  distinguished  by  rank  or  property, 
in   the   rights  of  freedom   we  are   all  YquAL.     As  we  are 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  267 

Englishmen,  the  least  considerable  man  among  us  has  an  inter- 
est, equal  to  the  proudest  nobleman,  in  the  laws  and  constitu- 
tion of  his  country." 

Chatham.  "  It  was  therefore,  said  he,  their  [the  Peers'] 
highest  interest,  as  well  as  their  duty,  to  watch  over  and  guard 
the  people  ;  for  when  the  people  had  lost  their  rights,  those  of 
the  peerage  would  soon  become  insignificant.  To  argue  from 
experience,  he  begged  leave  to  refer  their  Lordships  to  a  most 
important  passage  in  history,  described  by  a  man  of  great  abil- 
ities, Dr.  Robertson.  This  writer,  in  his  life  of  Charles  the 
Fifth  (a  great,  ambitious,  wicked  man),  informs  us,  that  the 
Peers  of  Castile  were  so  far  cajoled  and  seduced  by  hira,  as 
to  join  him  in  overturning  that  p)art  of  the  Cortes,  which 
represented  the  People." 

Junius  says,  "  I  am  persuaded  you  will  not  leave  it  to  the 
choice  of  seven  hundred  persons  [Parliament],  notoriously  cor- 
rupted by  the  crown,  whether  seven  millions  of  their  equals 
shall  be  freemen  or  slaves." — "  Without  insisting  upon  the  ex- 
travagant concessions  made  to  Henry  the  Eighth,  there  are  in- 
stances, in  the  history  of  other  countries,  of  a  formal,  delibe- 
rate surrender  of  the  public  liberty  into  the  hands  of  the  sove- 
reign.^^ 

Chatham.  "They  [the"  Peers  of  Castile]  were  weak 
enough  to  adopt,  and  base  enough  to  be  flattered  with  an  ex- 
pectation, that,  by  assisting  their  master  in  this  iniquitous  pur- 
pose, they  should  increase  their  own  strength  and  importance. 
What  was  the  consequence  ?  They  exchanged  the  constitu- 
tional authority  of  Peers,  for  the  titular  vanity  of  Grandees. 
They  were  no  longer  a  part  of  the  Parliament,  for  that  they 
had  destroyed  ;  and  when  they  pretended  to  have  an  opinion 
as  Grandees,  Charles  told  them  he  did  not  understand  it;  and 
naturally  enough,  when  they  had  surrendered  their  authoiity, 
he  treated  their  advice  with  contempt.  The  consequence  did 
not  stop  here.  He  made  use  of  the  people,  whom  he  had  en- 
slaved, to  enslave  others,  and  employed  the  strength  of  the 
Castilians  to  destroy  the  rights  of  their  free  neighbcurs  of  Ar- 
ragon." 


268  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS, 

Junius  expresses  the  result  of  this  precious  portion  of  Span- 
ish history,  In  these  few  words ;  "  We  are  the  slaves  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  and,  through  them,  we  are  the  slaves  of 
the  King  and  his  ministers." 

Lord  Chatham,  continuing  the  same  subject,  says,  "  Let 
this  example  be  a  lesson  to  us  all.  Let  us  be  cautious  how 
we  admit  an  idea,  that  our  rights  stand  on  a  footing  different 
from  those  of  the  people.  Let  us  be  cautious  how  we  invade 
the  liberties  of  our  fellow-subjects,  however  mean,  however 
remote ;  for,  be  assured,  my  Lords,  that,  in  whatever  part  of 
the  empire  you  suffer  slavery  to  be  estabhshed,  whether  it  be 
in  America,  or  in  Ireland,  or  here  at  home,  you  will  find  it  a 
disease  which  spreads  by  contact,  and  soon  reaches  from  the 
extremities  to  the  heart.  The  man,  who  has  lost  his  owa 
freedom,  becomes,  from  that  moment,  an  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  an  ambitious  prince,  to  destroy  the  freedom  of  others." 

Junius.  "  We  can  never  be  in  real  danger,  until  the  forms 
of  Parliament  are  made  use  of  to  destroy  the  substance  of  our 
civil  and  political  liberties ;  until  Parliament  itself  betrays  its 
trust,  by  contributing  to  establish  new  principles  of  government, 
and  employing  the  very  weapons  committed  to  it  by  the  collec- 
tive body,  to  stab  the  constitution.^^     (March,  1770.) 

Chatham.  "  These  reflections,  my  Lords,  are  but  too  ap- 
plicable to  our  present  situation.  The  liberty  of  the  subject 
is  invaded,  not  only  in  provinces,  but  here  at  home.  The 
English  people  are  loud  in  their  complaints  ;  they  proclaim, 
with  one  voice,  the  injuries  they  have  received  ;  they  demand 
redress,  and,  depend  upon  it,  my  Lords,  that,  one  way  or  oth- 
er, they  will  have  redress.  They  will  never  return  to  a  state 
of  tranquillity  until  they  are  redressed  ;  nor  ought  they ;  for 
in  my  judgment,  and  I  speak  it  boldly,  it  were  better  for  them 
to  perish  in  a  glorious  contention  for  their  rights,  than  to  pur- 
chase a  slavish  tranquillity  at  the  expense  of  a  single  iota  of 
the  constitution.^^ 

Junius  says  to  the  King,  "  1  confess,  sir,  I  should  be  con- 
tented to  renounce  the  forms  of  the  constitution  once  more,  if 
there  were  no  other  way  to  obtain  substantial  justice." 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  269 

"  The  time  is  come,  when  the  body  of  the  English 

people  must  assert  their  own  cause.  Conscious  of  their  strength, 
and  animated  by  a  sense  of  their  duty,  they  will  not  surrender 
their  birth-right  to  Ministers,  Parliaments,  or  Kings." 

"  If  an  honest,  and,  I  may  truly  affirm,  a  laborious 

zeal  for  the  public  service,  has  given  me  any  weight  in  your 
esteem,  let  me  exhort  and  conjure  you  never  to  suffer  an  inva- 
sion of  your  political  constitution,  however  minute  the  instance 
may  appear,  to  pass  by  without  a  determined,  persevering  re- 
sistance. One  precedent  creates  another.  They  soon  accu- 
mulate, and  constitute  law.  What  yesterday  was  fact,  to  day 
is  doctrine.''''     (Dedication  to  the  English  nation.) 

Chatham.  "  Let  me  entreat  your  Lordships,  then,  in  the 
name  of  all  the  duties  you  owe  to  your  sovereign,  to  your 
country,  and  to  yourselves,  to  perform  that  office,  to  which 
you  are  called  by  the  constitution,  by  informing  his  Majesty 
truly  of  the  condition  of  his  subjects,  and  of  the  real  cause  of 
their  dissatisfaction.  I  have  considered  the  matter  with  most 
serious  attention  ;  and,  as  I  have  not,  in  my  own  breast,  the 
smallest  doubt,  that  the  present  universal  discontent  of  the  na- 
tion arises  from  the  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Commons 
upon  the  expulsion  of  Mr.  Wilkes,  I  think  that  we  ought,  in 
our  address,  to  state  that  matter  to  the  King,  which  I  beg  leave 
to  submit  to  the  consideration  of  the  House,  viz. 

"  '  And  for  these  great  and  essential  purposes,  we  will,  with 
all  convenient  speed,  take  into  our  most  serious  consideration 
the  causes  of  the  discontents  which  prevail  in  so  many  parts 
of  your  Majesty's  dominions,  and  particularly  the  late  pro- 
ceedings of  the  House  of  Commons,  touching  the  incapacity 
of  John  fVilkes,  Esq.  (expelled  by  that  House),  to  be  elected 
a  member  to  serve  in  this  present  Parliament,  thereby  refusing 
(by  a  resolution  of  one  branch  of  the  legislatin-e  only)  to  the 
subject  his  common  right,  and  depriving  the  electors  of  Mid- 
dlesex of  their  free  choice  of  a  representative.'  " 

Then  rose  Lord  Mansfield  and  said,  "  that  he  had  never  de- 
livered any  opinion  upon  the  legality  of  the  proceedings  of  the 


270  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

House  of  Commons  on  the  Middlesex  election,  nor  should  he 
now,  notwithstanding  any  thing  that  might  be  expected  from 
him.  That  he  had  locked  it  up  in  his  own  breast,  and  it 
should  die  with  him.''' 

Junius  to  Lord  Mansfield.  "  As  a  Lord  in  Parliament, 
you  were  repeatedly  called  upon  to  condemn  or  defend  the 
new  law  declared  by  the  House  of  Commons.  You  affected 
to  have  scruples,  and  every  expedient  was  attempted  to  re- 
move them.  The  question  was  proposed  and  urged  to  you  in 
a  thousand  different  shapes.  Your  prudence  still  supplied  you 
with  evasion  ;  your  resolution  was  invincible.  For  my  own 
part,  I  am  not  anxious  to  penetrate  this  solemn  secret.  I  care 
not  to  whose  wisdom  it  is  entrusted,  nor  how  soon  you  carry 
it  with  you  to  your  grave.''  Junius  adds,  in  a  note  to  this  pas- 
sage, "  He  said,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that  he  believed  he 
should  carry  his  opinion  with  him  to  the  grave."  (November 
24,  1770.) 

As  no  report  of  this  speech  had  then  been  published,  Mr. 
Taylor  concludes,  that  Junius  was  in  the  House  at  the  time  it 
was  delivered.  After  Lord  Mansfield  had  finished  his  elabo- 
rate but  evasive  speech,  the 

Earl  of  Chatham  arose  and  said,  "  My  Lords,  there  is 
one  plain  maxim,  to  which  I  have  invariably  adhered  through 
life  ;  that  in  every  question,  in  which  my  liberty  or  my  proper- 
ty was  concerned,  I  should  consult  and  be  determined  by  the 
dictates  of  common  sense."     Six  months  prior  to  this  speech, 

Junius,  with  reference  to  the  same  subject,  says,  "  It  is  a 
point  of  fact,  on  which  every  English  gentleman  will  determine 
for  himself  As  to  lawyers  their  profession  is  supported  by 
the  indiscriminate  defence  of  right  and  wrong  ;  and  I  confess 
I  have  not  that  opinion  of  their  knowledge  or  integrity,  to 
think  it  necessary  that  they  should  decide  for  me  upon  a  plain 
constitutional  question."     (June  22,  1769.) 

Chatham,  referring  still  to  Lord  Mansfield's  subtle  speech, 
said,  "  I  confess,' my  Lords,  that  I  am  apt  to  distrust  the  refine- 
ments of  learning,  because  I  have  seen  the  ablest  and  most 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  271 

learned  men  equally  liable  to  deceive  themselves,  and  to  mis- 
lead others.  The  condition  of  human  nature  would  he  lament- 
able indeed,  if  nothing  less  than  the  greatest  learning  and  tal- 
ents, which  fall  to  the  share  of  so  small  a  number  of  men, 
were  sufficient  to  direct  our  judgment  and  our  conduct.  But 
Providence  has  taken  better  care  of  our  happiness,  and  given 
us,  in  the  simplicity  of  common  sense,  a  rule  for  our  direction, 
by  which  we  shall  never  be  mislead." 

Junius.  "  This  proposition  is  singular  enough,  and  turns 
upon  a  refinement  very  distant  from  the  simplicity  of  common 
sense."  "  Now,  my  Lord,  [to  Mansfield]  without  pretending  to 
reconcile  the  distinctions  of  Westminster-hall  with  the  simple 
information  of  common  sense."  To  Mr.  Printer  Woodfall,  he 
says,  "  The  Latin  word,  simplex,  conveys  to  me  an  amiable 
character,  and  never  denotes  folly." 

Chatham.  "  My  Lords,  I  must  beg  the  indulgence  of  the 
House.  Neither  will  my  health  permit  me,  nor  do  I  pretend 
to  be  qualified,  to  follow  that  learned  Lord  [Mansfield]  minute- 
ly through  the  whole  of  his  argument.  JVo  man  is  better  ac- 
quainted with  his  abilities  and  learning,  nor  has  a  greater 
respect  for  them,  than  I  have.  I  have  had  the  pleasure  of  sit- 
ting with  him  in  the  other  house,  and  always  listened  to  him 
with  attention.     I  have  not  now  lost  a  word  of  what  he  said, 

NOR  DID   I   EVER." 

In  this  debate,  Mr.  Taylor  remarks,  that  Junius  not  only 
felt  like  Lord  Chatham  on  this  particular  subject,  but  address- 
ed Lord  Mansfield  in  nearly  similar  terms  ;  yet  he  never  sus- 
pected that  two  characters  were  acted  by  the  same  person  in 
different  scenes. 

Junius  says  to  the  Lord  Chief  Justice.  "  In  public  affairs, 
my  Lord,  cunning,  let  it  be  ever  so  well  wrought,  will  not  con- 
duct a  man  honorably  through  hfe.  Like  bad  money,  it  may 
be  current  for  a  time,  but  it  will  soon  be  cried  down.  It 
cannot  consist  with  a  liberal  spirit,  though  it  be  sometimes 
united  with  extraordinary  (qualifications.  When  I  acknowl- 
edge your  abilities,  you  may  believe  I  am  sincere.     I  feel  for 


272      CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

human  nature,  when  I  see  a  man,  so  gifted  as  you  are,  descend 
to  such  vile  practices.  Yet  do  not  suffer  your  vanity  to  console 
you  too  soon.  Believe  me,  my  good  Lord,  you  are  not  ad- 
mired in  the  same  degree  in  which  you  are  detested.  It  is 
only  the  partiality  of  your  friends,  that  balances  the  defects  of 
your  heart  with  the  superiority  of  your  understanding."  Again, 
"  Junius  never  pretends  to  be  a  better  lawyer  than  Lord 
Mansfield  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  takes  every  opportunity  to  ac- 
knowledge the  superior  learning  and  abilities  of  that  wicked 
judge."     (Philo-Junius.) 

There  certainly  is  something  very  much  resembling  envy,  if 
not  hatred,  in  Lord  Chatham's  treatment  of  Lord  Mansfield ; 
else  why  indulge  in  such  bitter  invectives,  such  mortifying  sar- 
casms, against  the  head  officer  of  the  English  judicatory.  He 
continued  it  to  his  last  breath  in  the  House  of  Peers,  when, 
casting  his  eyes  on  INIansfield,  he  glanced  at  the  Scotch  rebel- 
lion. In  like  manner  Junius  employs  the  last  stroke  of  his 
pen  in  writing  this  maledictory  sentence.  "  Considering  the 
situation  and  abilities  of  Lord  Mansfield,  I  do  not  scruple  to 
affirm,  with  the  most  solemn  appeal  to  God  for  my  sincerity, 
that,  in  my  judgment,  he  is  the  very  worst  and  most  dangerous 
man  in  the  kingdom.  Thus  have  I  done  my  duty  in  endeav- 
ouring to  bring  him  to  punishment.  But  mine  is  an  inferior 
ministerial  office  in  the  temple  of  justice.  /  have  hound  the 
victim  and  dragged  him  to  the  altar."  * 

*  Our  countryman,  Copley^  must  have  thought  of  these  things,  when 
he  painted  apathy,  personified  in  the  likeness  of  Lord  Mansfield,  in  his 
famous  picture  of  "  the  death  o/'Lord  Chatham," — the  only  unmoved 
countenance  in  the  whole  group. 

We  cannot  judge  of  the  feelings  of  Lord  Chatham  towards  that 
great  law  character ;  but  Dr.  Bisset,  whose  partiality  to  the  Scotch  ia 
apparent  in  his  history  of  George  the  Third,  says,  "  that  a  reader,  who 
should  know  the  origin,  principles,  and  history  of  the  American  war, 
without  having  attended  to  parliamentary  debates  and  speeches,  would 
learn  with  surprise,  that  a  most  strenuous  abetter  of  coercive  measures, 
a  determined  enemy  to  every  plan  of  a  conciliatory  spirit,  a  supporter  of 
unconditional  submission,  and  a  prophesier  of  speedy  subjugation,  was 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  273 

Chatham.  "  The  constitution  of  this  country  has  been 
openly  invaded  in  fact,  and  /  have  heard  with  horror  and 
astonishment  thai  very  invasion  defended  upon  principle. 
What  is  this  mysterious  power,  undefined  by  law,  unknown  to 
the  subject,  which  we  must  not  approach  without  awe,  nor 
speak  of  without  reverence,  which  no  man  may  question  and  to 
which  all  men  must  submit  ?  " 

Junius.  "  The  known  laws  of  the  land,  the  rights  of  the 
subject,  the  sanctity  of  charters,  and  the  reverence  due  to  our 
magistrates,  must  all  give  way,  without  question  or  resistance^ 
to  a  privilege,  of  which  no  man  knows  either  the  origin  or 
extent.^^ 

Chatham.  "  My  Lords  [still  referring  to  Lord  Mansfield, 
then  sitting  as  Lord  Chancellor],  I  thought  the  slavish  doctrine 
of  passive  obedience  had  long  since  been  exploded  ;  and,  when 
our  kings  were  obliged  to  confess,  that  their  title  to  the  crown 
and  the  rule  of  their  government  had  no  other  foundation  than 
the  known  laws  of  the  land,  I  never  expected  to  hear  a  divine 
right  or  a  divine  infallibility  attributed  to  any  other  branch  of 
the  legislature.  My  Lords,  I  beg  to  be  understood.  No  man 
respects  the  House  of  Commons  more  than  1  do,  or  would 
contend  more  strenuously  than  I  would,  to  preserve  them  their 
just  and  legal  authority.  Within  the  bounds  prescribed  by  the 
constitution,   that  authority  is  necessary  to   the   well-being  of 

Lord  Mansfielp."  If  so,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  Earl  ofChatham 
detested  him,  and  that  Junius  dragged  him  hound  to  the  altar  for 
Lord  Camdtn  to  sacrifice  tiie  British  Ahilophel. 

Dr.  Bisset  proceeds  thus ;  "  Such  powers  of  argument  in  cases  of 
momentous  import,  drawing  conclusions  from  insufficient  information 
and  erroneous  principles  ;  such  profound  wisdom,  sanctioning  the  meas- 
ures, decrees,  and  acts  of  misinformation,  precipitancy,  and  violence, 
afford  a  striking  instance  of  the  weakness  which,  from  the  imperfec- 
tion of  human  nature,  is  often  intermingled  with  the  most  exalted  qual- 
ities ;  it  tcaciies  the  reasoner  in  drawing  his  inferences,  and  the  coun- 
sellor in  forming  his  schemes,  not  to  place  implicit  reliance  on  either 
the  authority  or  example  of  even  an  illustrious  sage." — History  of 
George  the  Third,  Vol.  II.   p.  327.    London  edition. 

35 


274  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

the  people ;  beyond  that  hne,  every  exertion  of  power  is  ar- 
bitrary, is  illegal ;  it  threatens  tyranny  to  the  people  and  de- 
struction to  the  state.  Poiver  without  right  is  the  most  odious 
and  detestable  object  that  can  the  offered  to  he  human  imagi- 
nation ;  it  is  not  only  pernicious  to  those  who  are  subject  to  it, 
but  tends  to  its  own  destruction.  It  is  what  ray  noble  friend 
[Lord  Lyttleton]  has  truly  described  it,  Res  detestabilis  et  ca- 
duca." — "  I  acknowledge  the  just  power,  and  reverence  the 
constitution,  of  the  House  of  Commons.  It  is  for  their  own 
sakes  that  I  would  prevent  their  assuming  a  power  which  the 
constitution  has  denied  them,  lest  by  grasping  at  an  authority 
they  have  no  right  to,  they  should  forfeit  that  which  they  le- 
gally possess. ^^ 

Junius.  "  In  my  opinion,  you  grasp  at  the  imposssible,  and 
lose  the  really  attainable. 

Chathaji.  "  I  affirm  that  they  have  betrayed  their  con- 
stituents and  violated  the  constitution.^^ 

Junius.  Let  the  people  "  determine  by  their  conduct  at 
a  future  election,  whether  or  no  it  be  in  reality  the  general 
sense  of  the  nation,  that  their  rights  have  been  arbitrarily  in- 
vaded by  the  present  House  of  Commons,  and  the  constitution 
betrayed.''^ 

Chatham.  "  Under  pretence  of  declaring  the  law,  they 
have  made  a  law,  and  united  in  the  same  persons  the  office 
of  legislator  and  judge.^^ 

Junius  says,  that  "  Parliament  presumed  to  make  a  law 
under  pretence  of  declaring  it,"  and  pronounces  it  "  a  law  in 
pretence  declared,  in  reality  made.  Legislation  and  juris- 
diction are  united  in  the  same  persons,  and  exercised  at  the 
same  moment ;  and  a  court,  from  which  there  is  no  appeal,  as- 
sumes an  original  jurisdiction  in  a  criminal  case." 

Junius  continues, — "  The  crime,  like  the  punishment,  was 
in  their  own  bosoms.  They  were  ex  post  facto  legislators. 
They  were  parties  ;  they  ivere  judges  ;  and  instead  of  a  court 
of  final  adjudicature,  acted  as  a  court  of  criminal  jurisdiction 
in  the  first  instance." 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  275 

Chatham,  "  The  noble  Lord  seems  fond  of  the  word  ju~ 
risdidion,  and,  I  confess,  with  the  force  and  effect  which  he 
has  given  it,  it  is  a  word  of  copious  meaning  and  wonderful 
extent." — "  My  Lords,  we  knew  that  jurisdiction  was  nothing 
more  than  jus  dicere  ;  we  knew,  that  legem  faccre  and  legem 
dicere  were  powers  clearly  distinguished  from  each  other  in 
the  nature  of  things,  and  wisely  separated  by  the  wisdom  of 
the  English  constitution  ;  but  now  it  seems  we  must  adopt  a 
new  system  of  thinking.  The  House  of  Commons,  we  are 
told,  have  a  supreme  jurisdiction  ;  and  there  is  no  appeal  from 
their  sentence;  and  that,  wherever  they  are  competent  judges, 
their  decision  must  he  received  and  submitted  to  as,  ipso  facto, 
the  latv  of  the  land.'''' 

Junius.  "  You  have  hitherto  maintained,  that  the  House 
of  Commons  are  the  sole  judges  of  their  own  privileges,  and 
that  their  declaration  does,  ipso  facto,  constitute  the  law  of  Par- 
liament.^^ 

Chatham.  "  My  Lords,  /  am  a  plain  man,  and  have  been 
brought  up  in  a  religious  reverence  for  the  original  simpUcity 
of  the  laws  of  England." 

Junius  on  the  same  subject.  "  Is  this  the  law  of  Parlia- 
ment, or  is  it  not  ?  /  am  a  plain  man.  Sir,  and  cannot  follow 
you  through  the  phlegmatic  forms  of  an  oration."  And  again, 
referring  to  the  same  part  of  Lord  Mansfield's  speech,  to 
which  Chatham  alludes,  he  adds,  "  Suffer  me,  for  /  am  a 
plain,  unlettered  man,  to  continue  the  style  of  interrogation, 
which  suits  my  capacity." 

Chatham.  "  By  what  sophistry  they  [the  laws  of  Eng- 
land] have  been  perverted,  by  what  artifices  they  have  been 
involved  in  obscurity,  is  not  for  me  to  explain.  The  principles, 
however,  of  the  English  laws  are  still  sufficiently  clear ;  they 
are  founded  in  reason,  and  are  the  master-piece  of  the  human 
understanding  ;  but  it  is  in  the  text  that  I  would  look  for  a  di- 
rection to  my  judgment,  not  in  the  commentaries  of  modern 
professors.  The  noble  Lord  assures  us,  that  he  knows  not  in 
what   code   the  law  of  Parliament  is  to  be  found  ;  that  the 


276  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

House  of  Commons,  when  they  act  as  judges,  have  no  law  to 
direct  them  hut  their  own  wisdom  ;  that  their  decision  is  law  ; 
and  if  they  determine  wrong,  the  subject  has  no  appeal  hut  to 
Heaven.  What  then,  my  Lords,  are  all  the  generous  efforts 
of  our  ancestors,  are  all  those  glorious  contentions  by  which 
they  meant  to  secure  to  themselves,  and  to  transmit  to  their 
posterity  a  known  law, — a  certain  rule  of  living,  reduced  to 
this  conclusion,  that  instead  of  the  arbitrary  power  of  a  king, 
we  must  submit  to  the  arbitrary  power  of  an  House  of  Com- 
mons ?  If  this  be  true,  what  benefit  do  we  derive  from  the 
exchange  ?  Tyranny,  my  Lords,  is  detestable  in  every  shape  ; 
hut  in  none  so  formidable  as  when  it  is  assumed  and  exercised 
by  a  number  of  tyrants.  But,  my  Lords,  this  is  not  the  fact; 
this  is  not  the  constitution  ;  we  have  a  law  of  Parliament ;  we 
have  a  code,  in  which  every  honest  man  may  find  it.  We 
have  Magna  Charta  ',  we  have  the  Statute  Book,  and  the 
Bill  of  Rights. 

Junius.  "  The  House  of  Commons  judge  of  their  own 
privileges  without  appeal : — They  may  take  offence  at  the 
most  innocent  action,  and  imprison  the  person  who  offends 
them  during  their  arbitrary  \\\\\  and  pleasure.  The  party  has 
no  remedy.  He  cannot  appeal  from  their  jurisdiction  ;  and  if 
he  question  the  privilege  v.hich  he  is  supposed  to  have  vio- 
lated, it  becomes  an  aggravation  of  his  offence.  Surely,  Sir,  this 
doctrine  is  not  to  be  found  in  Magna  Charta.  If  it  be  ad- 
mitted without  limitation,  1  affirm  that  there  is  neither  law  nor 
liberty  in  this  kingdom.  We  are  the  slaves  of  the  House  of 
Commons,  and  through  them,  we  are  the  slaves  of  the  King 
and  his  ministers.'''' — "  The  people  will  grow  weary  of  their 
condition,  and  surrender  every  thing  into  the  King^s  hands, 
rather  than  submit  to  be  trampled  on  any  longer  by  five  hun- 
dred of  their  equals. ^^ 

"  The  power  of  the  legislature  is  limited,  not  only 

by  the  general  principles  of  natural  justice  and  the  welfare  of  the 
community,  but  by  the  forms  and  principles  of  our  particular 
constitution.     If  this  doctrine  be  not  true,  we  must  admit,  that 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  277 

King,  Lords,  and  Commons,  have  no  rule  to  direct  their  resolu- 
tions but  merely  their  own  will  and  pleasure.  They  might  unite 
the  legislative  and  executive  power  in  the  same  hands,  and  dis- 
solve the  constitution  by  an  act  of  Parliament.  But  I  am  per- 
suaded you  will  not  leave  it  to  the  choice  of  seven  hundred 
persons,  notoriously  corrupted  by  the  crown,  whether  seven 
millions  of  their  equals  shall  he  freemen  or  slaves.'" 

Mr.  Taylor  remarks,  that  the  first  of  these  paragraphs  could 
only  proceed  from  some  person  who  heard  the  speech,  and 
took  notes  which  would  furnish  him  with  this  correct  transcript 
of  it  more  than  a  year  after. 

Chatham.  "  What  security  would  they  [the  people]  have 
for  their  rights,  if  once  they  admitted,  that  a  court  of  judicature 
might  determine  every  question  that  came  before  it,  not  by  any 
known  positive  law,  but  by  the  vague,  indeterminate,  arbitrary 
rule,  of  what  the  noble  Lord  is  pleased  to  call  '  the  wisdom 
of  the  court  ?  '  " 

Junius,  on  the  same  occasion,  says  to  Lord  Mansfield, — 
"  Instead  of  those  certain,  positive  rules,  by  which  the  judg- 
ment of  a  court  of  law  should  invariably  be  determined,  you 
have  fondly  introduced  your  own  unsettled  notions  of  equity 
and  substantial  justice.  Decisions  given  upon  such  principles 
do  not  alarm  the  public  so  much  as  they  ought,  because  the 
consequence  and  tendency  of  each  particular  instance  is  not 
observed  or  regarded.  In  the  mean  time  the  practice  gains 
ground  ;  the  Court  of  King's  Bench  becomes  a  court  of  equity, 
and  the  judge,  instead  of  consulting  strictly  the  law  of  the 
land,  refers  only  to  the  wisdom  of  the  court  and  the  purity  of 
his  own  conscience." 

Chatham.  "  With  respect  to  the  decision  of  the  courts  of 
justice,  I  am  far  from  denying  them  their  due  weight  and  au- 
thority, yet,  placing  them  in  the  most  respectable  view,  I  still 
consider  them,  not  as  law,  but  as  an  evidence  of  the  law  ; 
and  before  they  can  arrive  even  at  that  degree  of  authority,  it 
must  appear,  that  they  are  founded  in,  and  confirmed  by, 
reason  ;  that  they  are  supported  by  precedents,   taken   from 


278  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

good   and   moderate  times  ;    that  they  do  not  contradict  any 
positive  law  ;  that  they  are  submitted  to  without  reluctance  by 
the    people  ;    that  they   are   unquestioned    by  the   legislature 
(whicliis  equivalent  to  a  tacit  confirmation)  ;  and,  what,  in  my 
judgment,  is  by  far  the   most  important,   that  they  do  not  vio- 
late the  spirit   of  the   constitution.     My  Lords,    this  is  not  a 
vague  or  loose  expression  ;  we  all  know  what   the   constitution 
is ;  we  all  know  that  the  first  principle  of  it  is,  that  the  subject 
shall  not  be   governed    by  the   arbitrium  of  any  one   man  or 
body  of  men   (less  than  the  whole  legislature),  but  by  certain 
laws,  to   which   he  has  virtually  given  his   consent,  which  are 
open  to  him  to  examine,  and  not  beyond   his   ability  to  under- 
stand.    Now,  my  Lords,  I  affirm,    and  am  ready  to  maintain, 
that  the  late  decision  of  the  House  of  Commons,  upon  the  Mid- 
dlesex election,  is  destitute  of  every  one  of  those  properties  and 
conditions  which  I  hold  to  be  essential  to  the  legality  of  such  a 
decision.     It  is  not  founded  in  reason  ;  for  it  carries  with  it  a 
contradiction,  that  the  representative  should  perform  the  office 
of  the  constituent  body.     It  is  not  supported  by  a  single  prece- 
dent;  for  the  case  of  Sir  Robert  Walpole  is  but  a  half  prece- 
dent, and  even  that  half  is  imperfect." 

Junius,  about  six  months  before  this  speech,  makes  the 
same  remarks  on  the  Middlesex  question.  "I  do  not  mean 
to  admit,  that  the  late  resolution  of  the  House  of  Commons  is 
defensible  on  general  principles  of  reason,  any  more  than  in 
law." — "  There  is  no  statute  existing,  by  which  that  specific 
disability  which  we  speak  of  is  created." — "  There  is  no  prece- 
dent, in  all  the  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Commons,  which 
comes  entirely  home  to  the  present  case." — "  He  takes  ad- 
vantage eagerly  of  the  first  resolution,  by  which  Mr.  Walpole's 
incapacity  is  declared  ;  but  as  to  the  two  following,  by  which 
the  candidate  with  the  fewest  votes  was  declared  not  duly 
elected,  and  the  election  itself  vacated,  I  dare  say  he  would  be 
well  satisfied  if  they  were  for  ever  blotted  out  of  the  journals 
of  the  House  of  Commons.  In  fair  argument,  no  part  of  a 
precedent  should  be  admitted,  unless  the  whole  of  it  be  given 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED,  279 

US  together.  The  author  has  divided  his  precedent,  for  he 
knew  that,  if  taken  together,  it  produced  a  consequence  di- 
rectly the  reverse  of  that  which  he  endeavours  to  draw  from 
a  vote  of  expulsion." 

Chatham.  "  Incapacity  was  indeed  declared,  hut  his  crimes 
are  stated  as  the  ground  of  the  resolution,  and  his  opponent 
was  declared  to  he  not  duly  elected,  even  after  his  incapacity 
was  established." 

Junius.  "  Now,  Sir,  to  my  understanding  no  proposition  of 
this  kind  can  be  more  evident,  than  that  the  House  of  Commons, 
by  their  vote,  themselves  understood,  and  meant  to  declare, 
that  Mr.  WalpoWs  incapacity  arose  from  the  crimes  he  had 
committed,  not  from  the  punishment  the  House  annexed  to 
them. — They  respected  the  rights  of  the  people,  while  they 
asserted  their  own.  They  did  not  infer,  from  Mr.  Walpole's 
incapacity,  that  his  opponent  was  duly  elected ;  on  the  con- 
trary, they  declared  Mr.  Taylor  *  not  duly  elected,  and  the 
election  itself  void. — The  present  House  of  Commons  have 
x\e\\hQv  statute,  nor  custom,  nor  reason,  nov  one  single  prece- 
dent to  support  them." 

Chatham.  "  It  contradicts  Magna  Charta  and  the  Bill  of 
nights,  by  which  it  is  provided,  that  no  subject  shall  be  de- 
prived of  his  freehold,  unless  by  the  judgment  of  his  peers  or 
the  law  of  the  land  ;  and  that  elections  of  members  to  serve 
in  Parliament  shall  be  free  ;  and  so  far  is  this  decision  from 
being  submitted  to  by  the  people,  that  they  have  taken  the 
strongest  measures,  and  adopted  the  most  positive  language,  to 
express  their  discontent.  Whether  it  will  be  questioned  by 
the  legislature,  will  depend  upon  your  Lordship's  resolution  ; 
but  that  it  violates  the  spirit  of  the  constitution,  will,  I  think, 
be  disputed  by  no  man,  who  has  heard  this  day's  debate,  and 
who  wishes  well  to  the  freedom  of  the  country." 

Junius.     "  He  not  only  betrays  his  master,  but  violates  the 
spirit  of  the  English  constitution.'" — "  How  long,  and  to  what 


*  The  name  of  the  member  opposed  to  Walpole. 


280  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

extent,  a  King  of  England  may  be  protected  by  the  forms, 
when  he  violates  the  spirit  of  the  constitution,  deserves  to  be 
considered." 

Chatham.  "  Yet,  if  we  are  to  believe  the  noble  Lord,  this 
great  grievance,  this  manifest  violation  of  the  first  principles  of 
the  constitution,  will  not  admit  of  a  remedy  ;  is  not  even  ca- 
pable of  redress,  unless  we  appeal  at  once  to  Heaven." 

Junius.  "  Far  from  discovering  a  spirit  bold  enough  to  in- 
vade the  first  rights  of  the  people,  and  the  first  principles  of 
the  constitution.'''' — "  But  when  I  see  questions  of  the  highest 
national  importance  carried,  as  they  have  been,  and  the  first 
principles  of  the  constitution  openly  violated,  without  argument 
or  decency,  I  confess  I  give  up  the  cause  in  despair." 

Chatham.  "  My  Lords,  I  have  better  hopes  of  the  consti- 
tution, and  a  firmer  confidence  in  the  wisdom  and  constitution- 
al authority  of  this  House.  It  is  to  your  ancestors,  my  Lords, — 
it  is  to  the  English  barons,  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  laws 
and  constitution  we  possess.  Their  virtues  were  rude  and  un- 
cultivated, but  they  were  great  and  sincere.  Their  understand- 
ings were  as  little  polished  as  their  manners,  but  they  had 
hearts  to  distinguish  right  from  wrong  ;  they  had  heads  to  dis- 
tinguish truth  from  falsehood ;  they  understood  the  rights  of 
humanity,  and  they  had  spirit  to  maintain  them." 

Junius.  "  Their  speech  is  rude,  but  intelligible  ;  their  ges- 
tures fierce,  but  full  of  explanation.  Perplexed  by  sophistries, 
their  honest  eloquence  rises  into  action.  The  first  appeal 
was  to  the  integrity  of  their  representatives ;  the  second  to  the 
King's  justice  ;  the  last  argument  of  the  people,  whenever  they 
have  recourse  to  it,  will  carry  more,  perhaps,  than  persuasion 
to  the  Parliament,  or  supplication  to  the  throne." 

Chatham.  "  My  Lords,  I  think  that  history  has  not  done 
justice  to  their  [the  barons']  conduct,  when  they  obtained  from 
their  sovereign  that  great  acknowledgment  of  national  rights 
contained  in  Magna  Charta  ;  they  did  not  confine  it  to  them- 
selves alone,  but  delivered  it  as  a  common  blessing  to  the  whole 
people.     They  did  not  say,  These  are  the  rights   of  the  great 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  281 

barons,  or,  These  are  the  rights  of  the  great  prelates.  No,  my 
Lords,  they  said,  in  the  simple  Latin  of  the  times,  JYulhis  liber 
homo*  and  provided  as  carefully  for  the  meanest  subject  as 
for  the  greatest.  These  are  uncouth  words,  and  sound  but 
poorly  in  tlie  ears  of  scholars  ;  neither  are  they  addressed 
to  the  criticism  of  scholars,  but  to  the  hearts  of  freemen. 
These  three  words,  nullus  liber  homo,  have  a  meaning  which 
interests  us  all ;  they  deserve  to  be  remembered  ;  they  deserve 
to  be  inculcated  in  our  minds  ;  they  are  worth  all  the  classics. 
Let  us  not,  then,  degenerate  from  the  glorious  example  of  our 
ancestors.  Those  iron  barons,\  for  so  I  may  call  them,  when 
compared  with  the  silken  barons  of  modern  days,  were  the 
guardians  of  the  people." 

Junius.  "  When  the  bloody  Harrington,  that  silken,  fawn- 
ing courtier  at  St.  James's." 

After  reading  the  preceding  argumentative  paragraphs,  from 
the  speeches  of  Lord  Chatham  and  the  Letters  of  Junius,  can 
we  doubt  of  their  flowing  from  the  same  intellectual  fountain  ? 

Lord  Chatham  speaks  slightingly  of  those  who  assume  airs  on 
account  of  their  rank  as  noblemen,  and  the  writer  of  the  Let- 
ters holds  them  in  the  like  estimation. 

Junius.  "  At  the  same  time  that  I  think  it  good  pohcy  to 
pay  those  compliments  to  Lo7-d  Chatham  which,  in  truth,  he 
has  nobly  deserved,  I  should  be  glad  to  mortify  those  contempt- 
ible creatures  who  call  themselves  noblemen,  whose  worthless  im- 
portance depends  entirely  upon  their  influence  over  boroughsJ''' 

Chatham.  "  Yet  their  virtues  [the  barons']  were  never  en- 
gaged in  a  question  of  such'  importance  as  the  present.  A 
breach  has  been  made  in  the  constitution  ;  the  battlements  are 
dismantled  ;  the  citadel  is  open  to  the  first  invader  ;  the  walls 
totter  ;  the  constitution  is  not  tenable.  What  remains,  then,  but 
for  us  to  be  foremost  in  the  breach,  to  repair  it,  or  perish  in  it  ? 


*  No  freeman. 

\  Baron,  from  haro,  means  emphatically  a  man,  or  vir  of  the  Latins ; 
hence  the  sarcasm,  silken  barons. 
36 


283  COWCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

"  Great  pains  have  been  taken  to  alarm  us  with  the  conse- 
quences of  a  difference  between  the  two  Houses  of  ParUament ; 
that  the  House  of  Commons  will  resent  our  daring  to  advise 
the  crown,  and  never  forgive  us  for  attempting  to  save  the 
state.  I  am  sensible  of  the  importance  and  difficulty  of  this 
great  crisis.  At  a  moment  such  as  this,  w'e  are  called  upon  to 
do  our  duty,  without  dreading  the  resentment  of  any  man. 
But  if  apprehensions  of  this  kind  are  to  affect  us,  let  us  con- 
sider which  we  ought  to  respect  most,  the  representative  or 
the  collective  body  of  the  people.  My  Lords,  Jive  hundred 
gentlemen  are  not  ten  millions  ;  and  if  we  must  have  a  con- 
tention, let  us  take  care  to  have  the  EngHsh  nation  on  our  side. 
If  this  question  be  given  up,  the  freeholders  of  England  are 
reduced  to  a  condition  baser  than  the  peasantry  of  Poland.  If 
they  desert  their  own  cause  they  deserve  to  be  slaves  !  My 
Lords,  this  is  not  merely  the  cold  opinion  of  my  understanding, 
hut  the  glowing  expression  of  what  I  feel.  It  is  my  heart 
that  speaks.  I  know  I  speak  warmly ;  but  this  warmth  shall 
never  betray  my  argument  nor  my  temper.  The  kingdom  is 
in  aflame  /  " 

Junius.  "  The  formality  of  a  well  repeated  lesson  is  wide- 
ly distant  from  the  animated  expression  of  the  heart.'' — "  For- 
give this  passionate  language.  I  am  unable  to  correct  it.  It 
is  the  language  of  my  heart. 

Chatham.  "  As  mediators  betweem  the  king  and  people,  it 
is  our  duty  to  represent  to  him  the  true  condition  and  temper 
of  his  subjects.  It  is  a  duty  which  no  particular  respects 
should  hinder  us  from  performing ;  and  whenever  his  Majesty 
shall  demand  our  advice,  it  will  then  be  our  duty  to  inquire 
more  minutely  into  the  causes  of  present  discontents.  When- 
ever that  inquiry  shall  come  on,  I  pledge  myself  to  the  House 
to  prove,  that,  since  the  first  institution  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, not  a  single  precedent  can' be  produced  to  .justify  their 
late  proceedings.  My  noble  and  learned  friend,  'the  Lord 
Chancellor  (Camden),  has  pledged  hims^elf  to  the  House,  that 
he  will  support  that  assertion." 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  283 

["  Ne^rt  to  Lord  Temple,  the  most  intimate  political  as  well 
as  private  friend  of  Lord  Chatham  was  Lord  Camden.  It 
does  not  appear,  that  the  friendship  which  subsisted  between 
them  was  at  any  time  interrupted.  The  bond  of  gratitude, 
which  unites  one  statesman  to  another,  is,  in  general,  supposed 
to  be  weak.  In  the  present  instance  it  was  strong  and  lasting 
to  the  end  of  life  ;  for  Lord  Camden  was  one  of  the  executors 
of  Chatham's  last  will  and  testament."  ^] 

Chatham.  "  My  Lords,  the  character  and  circumstances 
of  Mr.  Wilkes  have  been  very  improperly  introduced  into  this 
question,  not  only  here,  but  in  that  court  of  judicature  where 
his  cause  w^as  tried  ;  I  mean  the  House  of  Commons.  With 
one  party  he  was  a  patriot  of  the  first  magnitude  ;  with  the 
other  the  vilest  incendiary.  For  my  oivn  part,  I  consider  him 
merely  and  indifferently  as  an  English  subject,  possessed  of 
certain  rights  which  the  laws  have  given  him,  and  which  the 
laws  alone  can  take  from  him.  I  am  neither  moved  by  his 
private  vices  nor  by  his  public  merits.  In  his  person,  though  he 
were  the  worst  of  men,  1  contend  for  the  safety  and  the  security 
of  the  best ;  and  God  forbid,  my  Lords,  that  there  should  be  a 
power  in  this  country  of  measuring  the  civil  rights  of  the  sub- 
ject by  his  moral  character,  or  by  any  other  rule  but  the  fixed 
laws  of  the  land.'''' 

Junius,  nine  months  before  this  speech,  advocates  the  cause 
of  Wilkes  on  the  same  ground,  and  in  language  so  little  dissim- 
ilar, that  we  are  constrained,  says  Mr.  Taylor,  to  believe  that 
he  had  a  hand  in  the  above.  "  For  my  own  part,^^  says  he, 
"  I  am  proud  to  affirm,  that,  if  I  had  been  weak  enough  to 
form  such  a  friendship,  1  would  never  have  been  base  enough 
to  betray  it.  But  let  Mr.  JVilkes^s  character  be  what  it  may, 
this  is  at  least  certain,  that  circumstanced  as  he  is  ivith  regard 
to  the  public,  even  his  vices  plead  for  him.  The  people  of 
England  have  too  much  discernment  to  suffer  your  Grace 
[Duke  of  Grafton]  to  take  advantage  of  the  failings  of  a  pri- 

*  Thackeray. 


284  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  .^ND  HIS  LETTERS. 

vate  character,  to  establish  a  precedent  by  which  the  public  lib- 
erty is  affected,  and  which  you  may  hereafter,  wiih  equal  ease 
and  satisfaction,  employ- to  ruin  the  best  men  of  the  kingdom.''^ 
— "  But  the  laws  of  England  shall  not  be  violated,  even  by 
your  holy  zeal  to  oppress  a  sinner  ;  and  though  you  have  suc- 
ceeded in  making  him  the  tool,  you  shall  not  make  him  the 
victim  of  your  ambition." 

Chatham.  "  I  believe,  my  Lords,  I  shall  not  be  suspected 
o{  znj personal  partiality  to  this  unhappy  man." 

Jqnius,  in  a  private  letter  to  Mr.  Wilkes,  in  reply  to  one 
in  which  he  complains  of  Junius's  bad  opinion  of  hinf,  says, 
"  Think  no  more  of  what  is  passed.  You  did  not  then  stand 
so  well  in  my  opinion  ;  and  it  was  necessary  to  the  plan  of 
that  Letter  to  rate  you  lower  than  you  deserved.  The  wound 
is  curable,  and  the  scar  shall  be  no  disgrace  to  you." — (Pri- 
vate Letter,  No.  Ixx.) 

Chatham.  "  I  am  now  suspected  of  coming  forward,  in 
the  decline  of  life,  in  the  anxious  pursuit  of  wealth  and  power, 
which  it  is  impossible  for  me  to  enjoy.  Be  it  so ;  there  is 
one  ambition  which  I  ever  will  acknowledge,  which  I  will 
not  renounce  but  ivith  my  life.  It  is  the  ambition  of  deliver- 
ing to  my  posterity  those  rights  of  freedom  which  I  have  re- 
ceived from  my  ancestors.''^ 

Junius.  "  We  owe  it  to  our  ancestors  to  preserve  entire 
those  rights  which  they  have  delivered  to  our  care.  .We  owe 
it  to  our  posterity  not  to  suffer  their  dearest  inheritance  to  be 
destroyed." 

Chatham.  "  /  am  not  now  pleading  the  cause  of  an  in- 
dividual, but  of  every  freeholder  in  England." 

Junius.  "  Be  assured  that  the  laws,  which  protect  us  in 
our  civil  rights,  grow  out  of  the  constitution,  and  that  they 
must  fall  or  flourish  with  it.  This  is  not  the  cause  of  a  fac- 
tion, or  of  a  party,  or  of  any  individual,  but  the  common  in- 
terest of  every  man  in  Britain." 

Chatham.  '•  It  is  possible,  my  Lords,  that  the  inquiry  I 
speak  of,  may  lead   us  to  advise  his  Majesty  to  dissolve  the 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  285 

present  Parliament ;  nor  have  I  any  doubt  of  our  rigbt  to  give 
that  advice,  if  we  should  think  it  necessary.  His  Majesty  will 
then  determine  whether  he  will  yield  to  the  united  petitions  of 
the  people  of  England,  or  maintain  the  House  of  Commons  in 
the  exercise  of  a  legislative  power,  which  heretofore  abolished 
the  House  of  Lords  and  overturned  the  monarchy." 

Junius.  By  depriving'  a  subject  of  his  birth-right,  they 
have  attributed  to  their  own  vote  an  authority  equal  to  an  act 
of  the  whole  legislature  ;  and,  though  perhaps  not  with  the 
same  motives,  have  strictly  followed  the  example  of  the  long  Par- 
liament, which  first  declared  the  regal  office  useless,  and  soon  af- 
ter, with  as  little  ceremony,  dissolved  the  House  of  Lords.  The 
same  pretended  power,  which  robs  an  English  subject  of  his 
birth-right,  may  rob  an  English  King  of  his  crown." 

Chatham.  "  I  willingly  acquit  the  present  House  of  Com- 
mons of  having  actually  formed  so  detestable  a  design  ;  but 
they  cannot  themselves  foresee  to  what  excesses  they  may  be 
carried  hereafter  ;  and,  for  my  own  part,  /  should  be  sorry  to 
trust  to  their  future  moderation.  Unlimited  power  is  apt  lo 
corrupt  the  minds  of  those  who  possess  it ;  and  this  I  know, 
that  where  law  ends,  tyranny  begins  !  " 

Junius.  "  Versed,  as  your  Majesty  undoubtedly  is,  in  Eng- 
lish history,  it  cannot  easily  escape  you,  how  much  it  is  your 
interest,  as  well  as  your  duty,  to  prevent  one  of  the  three  es- 
tates from  encroaching  upon  the  province  of  the  other  two,  or 
assuming  the  authority  of  them  all.  When  once  they  have 
departed  from  the  great  constitutional  line,  by  which  all  their 
proceedings  should  be  directed,  who  will  answer  for  their  fu- 
ture moderation  9  Or  what  assurance  will  they  give  you,  that, 
when  they  have  trampled  upon  their  equals,  they  will  submit  to 
a  superior?  Your  Majesty  may  learn  hereafter  how  nearly  the 
slave  and  tyrant  are  allied." 

"  In  the  last  two  extracts,  the  train  of  thought,"  says  Mr. 
Taylor,  "  pursued  by  Junius,  is  that  which  Lord  Chatham 
afterwards  followed.  Nor  is  it  only  in  the  line  of  argument 
that  we  may  observe  this  similarity ;  the  speech  verbally  resem- 


286  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HlS  LETTERS. 

hies  the  bomposition  of  Jvnivs.  Another  particular,  in  which 
the  speech  and  the  extracts  remarkably  agree,  is  in  the  pro- 
phetic announcement  of  the  dangerous  consequences  which 
might  ensue  to  the  King,  from  maintaining  and  abetting  the 
House  of  Commons  in  the  exercise  of  an  unlawful  degree  of 
power.  This  possible  stretch  of  authority,  it  has  been  already 
observed,  was  assumed  on  a  memorable  occasion,  when  Sir 
Philip  Francis,  in  his  own  person,  protested  against  it  withr 
as  much  energy  and  consistency,  as  if  he  had  spoken  in  the 
name  of  Lord  Chatham,  or  written  under  that  of  Junius." 

With  this  striking  similarity  in  words,  sentiments,  and  compo- 
sition, the  laborious  compiler  of  "  Junius  Identified,''''  never 
once  thought  that  Chatham  and  Junius  were  two  titles  for  the 
same  .person  !  * 

Here  end  the  parallel  passages 'of  a  celebrated  speech  of 
Lord  Chatham  on  the  ninth  of  January,  1770,  respecting  the 
conduct  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  the  expulsion  of  John 
Wilkes,  Esq.,  and  certain  portions  of  the  letters  of  Junius  on 
the  same  subject.  They  were  selected  by  Mr.  Taylor  to 
prove,  from  the  similarity  of  language  and  consirailitude  of  sen- 
timent between  the  Speech  and  the  Letters,  that  Sir  Philip 
Francis,  who  was  the  reporter  of  the  former,  was  actually  the 
author  of  the  Letters ;  while  we  adduce  the  comparison  as  evi- 
dence of  the  Letters  being  the  production  of  Chatham  him- 
self 

Only  three  weeks  intervened  between  the  date  of  the  fa- 
mous Letter  of  Junius  to  King  George  Me  Third,  and  the 
delivery  of  the  foregoing  speech. 

*  It  is  most  earnestly  to  be  wished,  that  our  young  gentlemen,  going' 
through. a  course  of  public  education,  would  study  ardently  the  abili- 
ties and  character  of  Lord  Chatham  in  his  parliamentary  speeches 
and  conduct,  instead  of  imitating  the  false  eloquence  of  the  Hibernian 
school,  with  which  too  maiw  are  enraptured  and"  corrupted.  While 
aiming  at  the  height  of  Ch'atham's  excellence,  some  might  happily  im- 
bibe liis  ever-during  moral  and  political  principles. 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  287 

The  consimihrity  of  sentiment,  train  of  thought,  and  even 
phraseology,  discernible  in  passages  from  certain  speeches 
of  Lord  Chatham,  •  compared  with  portions  of  Junius  on  the 
same  subjects,  are  so  adapted  to  the  support  of  our  hy- 
pothesis, that  we  shall  risk  the  patience  of  the  reader  by 
calling  his  attention,  as  farther  evidence,  to  another  speech  of 
the  English  Demosthenes,  dehvered  thirteen  days  after  the 
preceding  one. 

On  the  twenty-second  of  January,  1770,  the  Marquis  of 
Rockingham  moved,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  for  fixing  a  day 
to  take  into  consideration  the  state  of  the  nation. 

The  object  of  the  Marquis's  speech  was  to  show,  that  the 
then  unhappy  condition  of  affairs,  and  the  universal  discontent 
of  the  people,  did  not  arise  from  any  immediate  temporary 
cause,  but  had  grown  upon  them  by  degrees  from  the  moment 
of  his  Majesty^s  accession  to  the  throne  ;  that  the  persons  in 
whom  his  Majesty  then  confided  had  introduced  a  total  change 
in  the  old  system  of  English  government ;  that  they  had  adopt- 
ed a  maxim  which  must  prove  fatal  to  the  liberties  of  the 
country,  viz.  that  the  royal  prerogative  alone  was  sufficient  to 
support  government,  to  whatever  hands  the  administration  should 
be  committed ;  that  he  could  trace  the  operation  of  this  prin- 
ciple through  every  act  of  government  since  the  accession,  in 
which  those  persons  could  be  supposed  to  have  any  influence. 
He  said,  that  the  first  exertion  of  the  prerogative  was  to  make 
a  peace  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the  nation,  and  on  terms  total- 
ly disproportioned  to  the  successes  of  the  loar ;  but  as  they  felt 
themselves  unequal  to  the  conduct  of  the  war,  they  thought  a 
peace,  on  any  conditions,  necessary  for  their  own  security  and 
permanence  in  administration.  He  then  took  notice  of  certain 
odious,  tyrannical  acts  of  power,  by  which. an  approbation  of 
the  peace  had  been  obtained,  and  mentioned  the  genera}  sweep 
through  every  branch  and  department  of  administration  ;  the 
removals  not  merely  confined  to  the  higher  employments,  but 
carried  down  to  the  lowest  oflices  of  the  state ;  to  men  who 
had  subsisted  with  their  families  on   salaries  from   fifty  to  two 


288  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

hundred   pounds  a  year,   turned   out  to  misery  and  ruin,  to 
create  a  new  set  of  voters  and  parasites. 

The  Duke  of  Grafton  spoke  next  after  the  Marquis  upon  a 
number  of  little  things  in  his  desultory  and  confused  manner, 
and  Lord  Chatham  concurred  with  the  motion,  and  then  spoke 
of  that  condition  of  things  which,  he  said,  was  corrupting  the 
very  foundation  of  their  political  existence,  and  preying  upon 
the  vitals  of  the  state. 

Chatham  said,  "  If  the  King's  servants  will  not  permit  a 
constitutional  question  to  be  decided  on  according  to  the  forms 
of  the  constitution,  it  must  be  decided  in  some  other  manner  ; 
and  rather  than  it  should  be  given  up,  rather  than  the  nation 
should  surrender  their  birth-right  to  a  despotic  minister,  he 
hoped,  old  as  he  was,  to  see  the  question  brought  to  issue,  and 
fairly  tried  between  the  people  and  the  government.'^ 

Junius,  on  the  same  topic,  has  the  same  expression.  "  The 
time  is  come,  when  the  body  of  the  English  people  must  as- 
sert their  own  cause.  Conscious  of  their  strength,  and  ani- 
mated by  a  sense  of  their  duty,  they  will  not  surrender  their 
birth-right  to  ministers,  parliaments,  or  kings." — "  Every  meas- 
ure of  government  opens  an  ample  field  for  a  parliamentary  in- 
quisition. If  this  resource  should  fail  us,  our  next  and  latest  ap- 
peal must  be  made  to  Heaven." 

Chatham.  "  My  Lords,  this  is  not  the  language  of  faction; 
let  it  be  tried  by  that  criterion,  by  which  alone  we  can  dis- 
tinguish what  is  factious  from  what  is  not, — by  the  principles 
of  the  English  constitution.  I  have  been  bred  up  in  those  prin- 
ciples, and  know,  that,  when  the  Hberty  of  the  subject  is  in- 
vaded, and  all  redress  denied  him,  resistance  is  justified.  If  I 
had  a  doubt  upon  the  matter,  I  should  follow  the  example  set 
us  by  the  most  reverend  bench,  with  whom  I  believe  it  is  a 
maxim,  when  any  doubt  in  point  of  faith  arises,  or  any  ques- 
tion of  controversy  is  started,  to  appeal  at  once  to  the  Holy 
Bible.  The  constitution  has  hs  political  hible,  by  which,  if  it 
be  fairly  consulted,  every  political  question  may  and  ought  to 
be  determined.     Magna  Charta,  the  Petition  of  Rights,  and 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  289 

the  BUI  of  Rights  form  that  code  ivhich  I  call  the  Bible  of  the 
English  constitution. 

Junius  has  the  same  singular  cast  of  thought.  "The  civil 
constitution,  too,  that  legal  liherty,  that  general  ci'eed  which 
every  Englishman  professes,  may  still  be  supported,  though 
Wilkes,  and  Home,  and  Townshend,  and  Sawbridge  should 
obstinately  refuse  to  communicate  ;  and  even  if  the  Fathers  of 
the  Church,  if  Savile,  Richmond,  Camden,  Rockingham,  and 
Chatham,*  should  disagree  in  the  ceremonies  of  their  political 
worship,  and  even  in  the  interpretation  of  twenty  texts  in  Mag- 
na Charta." 

Chatham.  "  Had  some  of  his  Majesty's  unhappy  prede- 
cessors trusted  less  to  the  comments  of  their  ministers,  had  they 
been  better  read  in  the  text  itself,  the  glorious  revolution 
would  have  remained  only  possible  in  theory,  and  would  not 
now  have  existed  upon  record,  a  formidable  example  to  their 
successors." 

Junius  calls  the  decapitation  of  Charles  the  First  a  '■'■glorious 
act  of  substantial  justice,"  and  glances  at  it  repeatedly,  even  in 
his  Letter  to  the  King. 

Chatham.  "  I  cannot  agree  with  the  noble  Duke,  that 
nothing  less  than  an  immediate  attack  upon  the  honor  or  inter- 
est of  this  nation  can  authorize  us  to  interpose  in  defence  of 
weaker  states,  and  in  stopping  the  enterprises  of  an  ambitious 
neighbour.  Whenever  that  narrow,  selfish  policy  has  prevail- 
ed in  our  councils,  we  have  constantly  experienced  the  fatal  ef- 
fects of  it.  By  suffering  our  natural  enemies  to  oppress  the 
powers  less  able  than  we  are  to  make  resistance,  we  have  per- 
mitted them  to  increase  their  strength,  we  have  lost  the  most 
favorable  opportunities  of  opposing  them  with  success,  and 
found  ourselves,  at  last,  obliged  to  run  every  hazard  in  making 
that  cause  our  own,  in  which  we  were  not  wise  enough  to  take 

*  Sir  Philip  Francis  almost  worshipped  the  Earl  of  Chatham.  Had 
he  been  Junius,  would  lie  have  placed  his  idol  last  of  the  Fathers,  when 
in  truth  he  was  the  first  ? 

37 


290  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

part,  while  the  expense  and  danger  might  have  heen  supported 
by  others.  With  respect  to  Corsica,  I  shall  only  say,  that 
France  has  obtained  a  more  useful  and  important  acquisition 
in  one  pacific  campaign,  than  in  any  of  her  belligerent  cam- 
paigns ;  at  least  while  I  had  the  honor  of  administering  the 
war  against  her." 

Junius.  "  If,  instead  of  disowning  Lord  Shelburne  [Secre- 
tary of  State,  who  gave  instructions  to  Lord  Rochford,  then 
English  minister  at  Paris],  the  British  court  had  interposed  with 
dignity  and  firmness,  you  know  that  Corsica  would  never  have 
been  invaded.  The  French  saw  the  weakness  of  a  distracted 
ministry,  and  were  justified  in  treating  you  with  contempt. 
They  would  probably  have  yielded  in  the  first  instance,  rather 
than  hazard  a  rupture  with  this  country ;  but  being  once  en- 
gaged, they  cannot  retreat  without  dishonor.  Common  sense 
foresees  consequences,  which  have  escaped  your  Grace's  pen- 
etration.* Either  we  suffer  the  French  to  make  an  acquisition, 
the  importance  of  which  you  have  probably  no  conception  of; 
or  we  oppose  them  by  an  underhand  management,  which  only 
disgraces  us  in  the  eyes  of  Europe,  without  answering  any 
purpose  of  policy  or  prudence.  From  secret,  indirect  assis- 
tance, a  transition  to  some  more  open,  decisive  measures  be- 
comes unavoidable  ;  till  at  last  we  find  ourselves  principals  in 
the  war,  and  are  obliged  to  hazard  every  thing  for  an  object 
which  might  have  originally  been  obtained  without  expense  or 
danger.''^ 

Here  the  words,  sentiments,  and  train  of  thought  exactly 
accord  with  Lord  Chatham,  although  Junius  anticipated  his 
Lordship  by  several  months.  Now,  if  our  hypothesis  do  not 
absolutely  blind  us,  nay,  stupefy  us,  what  we  have  here  tran- 
scribed approaches  to  ,  demonstration.  As  it  regards  the  in- 
dustrious compiler,  Mr.  Taylor,  it  shows  how  near  men  some- 

*  Letter  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  May  30,  17()9.  Lord  Rochford 
was  a  character,  next  after  Lord  Camden,  of  whom  Junius  speaks 
with  unmingled  praise. 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  291 

times  come  to  a  discovery,  and  yet  miss  it.  It  has  been  so 
with  some  of  the  most  useful  inventions.  Shall  1,  at  this  late 
period  of  my  life,  add  to  the  number  of  the  hypothetically 
blind? 

Chatham.  "My  Lords,  the  condition  of  his  Majesty's  af- 
fairs in  Ireland,  and  the  state  of  that  kingdom  within  itself,  will 
undoubtedly  make  a  very  material  part  of  your  Lordships'  in- 
quiry. I  am  not  sufllciently  informed  to  enter  into  the  subject 
so  fully  as  I  could  wish  ;  but  by  what  appears  to  the  public, 
and  from  my  own  observation,  I  confess  I  cannot  give  the  min- 
istry much  credit  for  the  spirit  or  prudence  of  their  con- 
duct. I  see  that  even  where  their  measures  were  well  chosen, 
they  are  incapable  of  carrying  them  through,  without  some  un- 
happy mixture  of  weakness  or  imprudence.  They  are  inca- 
pable of  doing  entirely  right.'''' 

Junius  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton.  "  There  is  something  in 
both  [your  character  and  conduct],  which  distinguishes  you, 
not  only  from  all  other  ministers,  but  all  other  men.  It 
is  not  that  you  do  wrong  by  design,  hut  that  you  should  never 
do  right  by  mistake.'''' 

Chatham.  "  I  do  from  my  conscience,  and  from  the  best 
weighed  principles  of  my  understanding,  applaud  the  augmen- 
tation of  the  army,"  &;c.  &ic. 

We  have  inserted  this  striking  consimilitude  in  page  263, 
and  therefore  omit  it  here,  but  annex  what  was  said  upon  it  by 

Junius.  "  The  ministry,  it  seems,  are  laboring  to  draw  a 
line  of  distinction  between  the  honor  of  the  crown  and  the 
rights  of  the  people.  This  new  idea  has  yet  been  only  started 
in  discourse  ;  for,  in  effect,  both  objects  have  been  equally 
sacrificed.  I  neither  understand  the  distinction,  nor  what  use 
the  ministry  propose  to  make  of  it.  The  King's  honor  is  that 
of  the  people.  Their  real  honor  and  interest  are  the  same. 
I  am  not  contending  for  a  vain  punctilio.  A  clear,  unblemish- 
ed character  comprehends  not  only  the  integrity  that  will  not 
offer,  but  the  spirit  that  will  not  submit  to  an  injury  ;  and 
whether  it  belongs  to  an  individual  or  to  a  community,  it  is  the 


292  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

foundation  of  peace,  of  independence,  and  of  safety.  Private 
credit  is  wealth;  public  honor  is  securitij.  The  feather,  that 
adorns  the  royal  bird,  supports  his  flight.  Strip  him  of  his  plu- 
mage, and  you  fix  him  to  the  earth.'''' 

We  have  said  already,  in  page  ifi4,  that  we  find,  in  Lord 
Chatham's  speech  of  the  ninth  of  January,  1770,  the  germ  of 
this  beautiful  flower  of  Junius.  We  agree  in  sentiment  with 
Mr.  Taylor  on  the  striking  consimilarity  of  the  two  splendid 
passages  ;  at  the  same  time  we  wonder,  that  the  writer,  who 
saw  and  felt,  again  and  again,  the  congeniality,  never  once 
raised  his  eyes  from  the  reporter, — the  stenographer,  up  to  the 
spiritual  original !  Such  purely  ex  corde  sentiments,  fixed  opin- 
ions, and  fine  rhetorical  figures,  must  be  a  rivulet /roT/i /Ae  same 
clear  intellectual  fountain,  and  by  no  means  the  mere  incidental 
clothing  of  a  reporter,  however  able. 

Chatham.  [The  following  is  a  weighty  paragraph, — a  rich 
portion  of  the  history  of  England,  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign 
of  George  the  Third.]  "  My  Lords,  I  am  not  unpractised  in 
business,  and  if,  with  ail  that  apparent  diligence  and  all  that 
assistance  which  the  noble  Duke  speaks  of,  the  accounts  in 
question  have  not  yet  been  made  up,  I  am  convinced  there 
must  be  a  defect  in  some  of  the  public  offices,  which  ought  to 
be  strictly  inquired  into  and  severely  punished.  But,  my 
Lords,  the  waste  of  the  public  money  is  not  of  itself  so  impor- 
tant, as  the  pernicious  purpose  to  which  we  have  reason  to 
suspect  that  money  has  been  applied. 

"  For  some  years  past,  there  has  been  an  influx  of  wealth 
into  this  country,  which  has  been  attended  with  many  fatal  con- 
sequences, because  it  has  not  been  the  regular,  natural  produce 
of  labor  and  industry.  The  riches  of  Asia  have  been  poured 
in  upon  us,  and  have  brought  with  them  not  only  Asiatic  luxu- 
ry, but,  I  fear,  Asiatic  principles  of  government.  Without  con- 
nexions, without  any  natural  interest  in  the  soil,  the  importers 
of  foreign  gold  have  forced  their  way  into  Parliament,  by 
Buch  a  torrent  of  private  corruption,  as  no  private,  hereditary 
fortune  could  resist.     My  Lords,  not  saying  but  what  is  within 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  293 

the  knowledge  of  us  all,  the  corruption  of  the  people  is  the 
great  original  cause  of  the  discontents  of  the  people  them- 
selves, of  the  enterprise  of  the  crown,  and  the  notorious  decay 
of  the  internal  vigor  of  the  constitution.  For  this  great  evil 
some  immediate  remedy  must  be  provided  ;  and  I  confess,  my 
Lords,  I  did  hope,  that  his  Majesty's  servants  would  not  have 
suffered  so  many  years  of  peace  to  elapse,  without  paying 
some  attention  to  an  object,  which  ought  to  engage  and"  inter- 
est us  all.  I  flattered  myself  I  should  see  some  barriers  thrown 
up  in  defence  of  the  constitution,  some  impediment  formed  to 
stop  the  rapid  progress  of  corruption." 

Junius.  "  I  am  concerned  to  see  that  the  great  condition 
which  ought  to  be  the  sine  qua  non  of  parliamentary  qualifica- 
tion, which  ought  to  be  the  basis,  as  it  assuredly  will  be  the 
only  support,  of  every  harrier  raised  in  defence  of  the  consti- 
tution,— 1  mean  a  declaration  upon  oath  to  shorten  the  dura- 
tion of  Parliaments,  is  reduced  to  the  fourth  rank  in  the  esteem 
of  the  Society."  * 

Chatham.  "  I  doubt  not  we  all  agree  that  something  must 
be  done.  I  shall  offer  my  thoughts,  such  as  they  are,  to  the 
consideration  of  the  House  ;  and  I  wish  that  every  noble 
Lord,  who  hears  me,  would  be  as  ready  as  I  am  to  contribute 
his  opinion  to  this  important  service.  I  will  not  call  my  own 
sentiments  crude  and  indigested  ;  it  would  be  unfit  for  me  to 
offer  any  thing  to  your  Lordshi}>s  which  I  had  not  well  con- 
sidered ;  and  this  subject,  I  own,  has  long  occupied  my 
thoughts.  I  will  now  give  them  to  your  Lordships  without 
reserve. 

"  Whoever  understands  the  theory  of  the  English  constitu- 
tion, and  will  compare  it  with  the  fact,  must  see  at  once  how 
widely  they  differ. ^^ 

Junius.  "  Certainly  nothing  can  be  less  reconcilable  to 
the  theory,  than  the  present  practice  of  the  constitution." 

Chatham  proceeds.  "  We  must  reconcile  them  to  each 
other,  if  we  wish  to  save  the  liberties  of  this  country  ;  we  must 

*  Society  for  the  support  of  the  Bill  of  Rights. 


294  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

reduce  our  political  practice  as  nearly  as  possible  to  our  prin- 
ciples. The  constitution  intended,  that  there  should  be  a  per- 
manent relation  between  the  constituent  and  representative 
body  of  the  people.  Will  ai^y  man  affirm,  that,  as  the  House 
of  Commons  is  now  formed,  that  relation  is  in  any  degree 
preserved  ?  My  Lords,  it  is  not  preserved,  it  is  destroyed. 
Let  us  he  cautious,  however,  how  we  have  recourse  to  violent 
expedients. ^^ 

Junius.  "  That  the  people  are  not  equally  and  fully  repre- 
sented is  unquestionable.  But  let  us  take  care  what  we  at- 
tempt.''^ 

Chatham.  "  The  boroughs  of  this  country  have  properly 
enough  been  called  the  rotten  parts  of  the  constitution.  I 
have  lived  in  Cornwall,  and,  without  entering  into  any  invid- 
ious particularity,  have  seen  enough  to  justify  the  appellation. 
But,  in  my  judgment,  my  Lords,  these  boroughs,  corrupt  as 
they  are,  must  be  considered  as  the  natural  infirmity  of  the 
constitution.  Like  the  infirmities  of  the  body,  we  must  bear 
them  with  patience,  and  submit  to  carry  them  about  with  us. 
The  limb  is  mortified,  but  the  amputation  might  be  death." 

Junius.  "  As  to  cutting  away  the  rotten  boroughs,  I  am  as 
much  offended  as  any  man  at  seeing  so  many  of  them  under 
the  direct  influence  of  the  crown,  or  at  the  disposal  of  pri- 
vate persons  ;  yet,  I  own,  I  have  both  doubts  and  apprehen- 
sions in  regard  to  the  remedy  you  propose.  I  shall  be  charged, 
perhaps,  with  an  unusual  want  of  political  intrepidity,  when 
I  honestly  confess  to  you,  that  1  am  startled  at  the  idea  of  so 
extensive  an  amputation^ 

"  When  all  your  instruments  of  amputation  are  prepared ; 
when  the  unhappy  victim  lies  bound  at  your  feet,  without  the 
possibility  of  resistance,  by  what  infallible  rule  will  you  direct 
the  operation  ?  When  you  propose  to  cut  away  the  rotten 
parts,  can  you  tell  us  what  parts  are  perfectly  sound  ?  Are 
there  any  certain  limits  in  fact  or  theory,  to  inform  you  at  what 
point  you  must  stop, — at  what  point  the  mortification  ends  ?  " 
[In  a  private  letter  to  John  Wilkes,  Esq.] 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  295 

Chatham.  "  Let  us  try,  my  Lords,  whether  some  gentler 
remedies  may  not  be  discovered.  Since  we  cannot  cure  the 
disorder,  let  us  endeavour  to  infuse  such  a  portion  of  new 
health  into  the  constitution,  as  may  enable  it  to  support  its 
most  inveterate  diseases^ 

Junius.  "  Besides  thai  I  approve  highly  of  Lord  Chat- 
ham's idea  o{  infusing  a  portion  of  new  health  into  the  consti- 
tution, to  enable  it  to  bear  its  infirmities,  (a  brilliant  ex- 
pression, and  full  of  intrinsic  wisdom)  other  reasons  concur  in 
persuading  me  to  adopt  it." 

Chatham.  "  The  representation  of  the  counties  is,  I  think, 
still  preserved  pure  and  uncorrupted.  That  of  the  greatest 
cities  is  upon  a  footing  equally  respectable  ;  and  there  are 
many  of  the  larger  trading  towns,  which  still  preserve  their  in- 
dependence. The  infusion  of  heahh,  which  1  now  allude  to, 
would  be  to  permit  every  county  to  elect  one  member  more, 
in  addition  to  their  present  representation.  The  Knights  of 
the  shires  approach  nearest  to  the  constitutional  representation 
of  the  country,  because  they  represent  the  soil." 

Junius.  "  JLorrf  Chatham's  project,  for  instance,  of  increas- 
ing the  number  of  Knights  of  shires  appears  to  me  admirable.''^ 

Chatham.  "  It  is  not  the  little  dependent  boroughs  ;  it  is 
in  the  great  cities  and  counties  that  the  strength  and  vigor  of 
the  constitution  resides,  and  by  them  alone,  if  an  unhappy 
question  should  ever  arise,  will  the  constitution  be  honestly  and 
firmly  defended.  I  would  increase  that  strength,  because  1  think. 
it  is  the  only  security  we  have  against  the  profligacy  of  the  times, 
the  corru})tion  of  the  people,  and  the  ambition  of  the  crown. 

"  I  think  I  have  weighed  every  possible  objection  that  can 
be  raised  against  a  plan  of  this  nature  ;  and  I  confess  I  see  but 
one,  which,  to  me,  carries  any  appearances  of  solidity.  It 
may  be  said,  perhaps,  that  when  the  act  passed  for  uniting  the 
two  kingdoms  (England  and  Scotland),  the  number  of  persons 
who  were  to  represent  the  whole  nation  in  Parliament  was  pro- 
portioned and  fixed  on  for  ever ;  that  this  limitation  is  a  funda- 
mental article,  and  cannot  be  altered  without  hazarding  a  dis- 
solution of  the  union. 


296  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

"  My  Lords,  no  man  who  hears  me  can  have  a  greater  rev- 
erence for  that  wise  and  important  act,  than  I  have.  I  revere 
the  memory  of  that  great  Prince  who  first  formed  the  plan, 
and  those  ilhistrious  patriots  who  carried  it  into  execution. 
As  a  contract,  every  article  should  be  inviolable ;  as  the 
common  basis  of  the  strength  and  happiness  of  two  nations, 
every  article  of  it  should  be  sacred.^'' 

Junius.  "  /  am  far  from  impeaching  the  articles  of  the 
union. ''^ 

Chatham.  "  T  hope  I  cannot  be  siipected  of  conceiving  a 
thought  so  detestable,  as  to  propose  an  advantage  to  one  of  the 
contracting  parties  at  the  expense  of  the  other.  No,  my 
Lords,  I  mean  that  the  benefit  should  be  univ^ersal,  and  the 
consent  to  receive  it  unanimous.  Nothing  less  than  a  most 
urgent  and  important  occasion  should  persuade  me  to  vary 
even  from  the  letter  of  the  act ;  but  there  is  no  occasion,  how- 
ever urgent,  however  important,  that  should  ever  induce  me  to 
depart  from  the  spirit  of  it.  Let  that  spirit  be  religiously  pre- 
served. Let  us  follow  the  principle  upon  which  the  repre- 
sentation of  the  two  countries  was  proportioned  at  the  union  ; 
and  when  we  increase  the  number  of  representatives  for  the 
English  counties,  let  the  shires  of  Scotland  be  allowed  an  equal 
privilege." — "  My  Lords,  besides  my  warm  approbation  of  the 
motion  made  by  the  noble  Lord  [J\Iarqnis  of  Rockingham^,  I 
have  a  natural  and  personal  pleasure  in  rising  up  to  second  it. 
I  consider  my  seconding  his  Lordship's  motion,  and  I  would 
wish  it  to  be  considered  by  others,  as  a  public  demonstration 
of  that  cordial  union  which,  I  am  happy  to  affirm,  subsists 
between  us, — of  my  attachment  to  those  principles  which  he 
has  so  well  defended,  and  of  my  respect  for  his  person. 
There  has  been  a  time,  my  Lords,  when  thos^,  who  wished 
well  to  neither  of  us,  who  wished  to  see  us  separated  for 
ever,  found  a  sufficient  gratification  for  their  mahgnity  against 
us  both.     But  that  time  is  happily  at  an  end. 

"  The  friends  of  this  country  will,  I  doubt  not,  hear  with 
pleasure,  that  the  noble  Lord  and  his  friends  are  now  united 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  297 

with  me  and  mine,  upon  a  principle  which,  I  trust,  will  make 
our  union  indissoluble.  It  is  not  to  possess  or  divide  the 
emoluments  of  government ;  but,  if  possible,  to  save  the  state. 
Upon  this  ground  we  met, — upon  this  ground  we  stand  firm 
and  inseparable.  No  ministerial  artifices,  no  private  offers,  no 
secret  seduction  can  divide  us.  Unhed  as  we  are,  we  can  set. 
the  profoundest  policy  of  the  present  ministry,  their  grand, 
their  only  arcanum  of  government,  their  Divide  et  impera,  at 
defiance." 

The  parallel  passages,  which  we  have  adduced,  were  se- 
lected by  a  judicious  writer,  who  searched  them  out  for  a  pur- 
pose different  from  our  own  :  his  was  to  prove  that  the 
reporter  of  Chatham's  speeches  was  in  fact  Junius,  as  he  per- 
ceived they  contained  not  only  his  sentiments  on  several 
important  topics,  but  partook  of  his  peculiar  style  and  turn 
of  thought;  whereas  we  have  recourse  to  them  to  show, 
that,  instead  of  a  mere  reporter  or  stenographer,  the  great 
orator  himself  was  actually  the  audacious  writer  of  the  fa- 
mous Letters,  and  that  they  and  the  equally  famous  Speeches 
flowed  from  one  and  the  same  intellect.  In  holding  this  paral- 
lelism up  to  view,  we  trust  that  we  have  neither  magnified 
trifles,  nor  traced  similitudes  where  no  likeness  exists.  We 
moreover  hope,  that  the  attentive  reader  will  re-peruse  these 
abstracts,  for  the  richness  of  the  matter  and  the  corresponding 
weight  of  the  diction.  They  are  pure  gold  ;  while  our  adap- 
tation may  be  considered  only  as  the  soldering.  They  are 
valuable  on  another  account ;  they  are  extracted  from  portions 
of  two  speeches,  mighty  in  their  personal  and  political  conse- 
quences. They  confused  still  more  a  weak  and  discordant 
ministry,  and  greatly  enraged  a  self-willed  monarch,  who,  in  a 
fit  of  resentment,  took  the  great  seals  from  the  Lord  Chancel- 
lor Camden,  on  a  suspicion  that  he  divulged  certain  secrets  of 
the  privy  council  to  his  friend.  Lord  Chatham,  who  had  spoken 
thus  freely  of  the  executive  measures. 

After  the  second  of  these  speeches  was  delivered,  several 
resignations  followed,  and  among  them  that  of  the  vacillating 
38 


298  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

and  timorous  Duke  of  Grafton  ;  and  very  many  refused  to  ac- 
cept of  places  under  the  crown  ;  not  a  man  of  consequence 
Avould  deign  to  take  tiie  place  of  Prime  Minister,  or  Lord  High 
Chancellor.  At  length  the  King  sent  for  Mr.  Charles  Yorke, 
second  son  of  the  Earl  of  Hardvvicke,  who  had  held  the  offices 
.of  Solicitor  and  Attorney-General  to  great  satisfaction,  and 
whose  elevation  to  the  chancellorship  had  been  long  anticipated 
as  a  very  desirable  event.  He  waited  on  his  sovereign  with 
the  fixed  resolution  of  not  accepting  that  station.  Some  courtly 
writers  say,  that  he  reluctantly  accepted  the  seals  by  the  express 
command  of  his  Majesty ;  but  we  uncourtly  Americans,  who 

dare  "  speak  truth  and   shame   the    d ,"   say,  it  was  by 

dint  of  vi^heedling,  earnest  intreaty,  and  even  the  tears  of  a 
King,  remarkably  dexterous  in  the  choice  of  means  to  obtain 
his  object,  that  this  honor  was  inflicted  upon  the  unhappy 
man,  who  was  ashamed  to  meet  his  friends  after  being  thus 
immediately  operated  upon,  so  that  while  the  patent  of  his 
peerage  (that  of  Baron  Morden)  was  preparing,  he  destroyed 
his  own  life.*  The  great  seals  were  then  offered  to  Sir 
Eardly  Wilmot,  who  refused  them,  and  to  Lord  Mansfield, 
who  declined  them.  In  this  perplexed  condition  of  the 
monarch's  affairs,  the  Earl  of  Mansfield  was  made  Speaker 
of  the  House  of  Lords  pro  tern.  At  the  same  time  the 
Marquis  of  Granhy  resigned  all  his  appointments,  except  the 
regiment  of  blues  ;  the  Duke  of  Beaufort,  his  post  of  master 
of  horse  to  the  Queen  ;  the  Duke  of  Manchester  and  the  Earl 
of  Coventry,  those  of  Lords  of  the  Bedchamber  ;  the  Earl  of 
Huntingdon,  his  place  of  Groom  of  the  Stole;  Mr.  Dunning, 
that  of  Solicitor-General ;  and  James  Grenville,  that  of  Vice- 
Treasurer  of  Ireland.  All  seemed  at  a  stand.  Yet,  in  the 
midst  of  this  singular  perplexity,  George  the  Third  maintained  a 
surprising  firmness,  or  a  quality  somewhat  resembling  it.  At 
length,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  remnants,  of  a  deserted 
court,  Frederick  Lord  North,  a  name  very  famous  even  in 
these  ends  of  the   earth,  was  mentioned  as  a  suitable  man  to 

*  Junius  speaks  of  this  with  horror. 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  290 

administer  the  government  of  the  almost  abandoned  King. 
Open-mouthed  incredulity  stared  with  astonishment,  while  such 
characters  as  Charles  Townshend,  John  Wilkes,  and  Lord 
Sandwich  laughed  outright ;  and  these  expressions  of  the  soul 
were  not  lessened  on  learning  that  North's  promotion  was 
chiefly  owing  to  the  influence  of  the  Princess  Dowager  of 
M'^ales  upon  her  son.  This  great  lady  condescended  to  per- 
suade the  Gilford  family  to  encourage  the  too  diffident  Lord 
North  to  take  the  helm,  notwithstanding  the  crazy  condition  of 
the  ship  and  the  squally  state  of  the  atmosphere  ;  and  she  re- 
laxed not  her  efforts  till  she  fixed  him  there.  She  knew  the 
importance  of  a  good  moral  character  with  her  son  and  with  the 
nation.  She  saw  its  resistless  power,  when  united  to  great 
abilities  in  a  Chatham,  a  Camden,  and  a  few  other  noblemen,  and 
could  not  but  acknowledge  the  ruinous  effects  of  the  lack  of  it 
in  men  and  women  endowed  with  great  talents,  rendered  bril- 
liant by  high  station.  Earl  Waldegrave's  resentment  must  have 
induced  him  to  underrate  the  talents  of  the  King's  mother.  Her 
sagacity  in  this  and  some  other  instances  sufficiently  evinces  her 
superior  powers  of  discrimination.  She  knew  the  sort  of  man 
who  would  best  suit  her  son  in  carrying  on  his  designs  against 
America,  and  who  would  listen  to  and  follow  the  advice  of 
Lord  Mansfield  and  of  Lord  Bute's  private  secretary,  Charles 
JenMnson,  the  confidential  and  official  adviser  of  the  Queen.* 
Lord  JVorth  was  what  some  people  affect  to  despise,  "  a 
good  sort  of  a  inaii,'"  very  amiable,  frank,  honest,  and  replete 
with  good-natured  wit,  with  an  assenting  conversation,  and 
without  a  personal  enemy ;  to  which  we  may  add  a  diffidence 
of  his  own  abilities  and  fitness  for  the  high  station  which  was 
Dffered  him.f    He  hesitated,  and  asked  the  advice  of  every  one, 


*  Lord  Liverpool  was,  at  tliat  time,  Solicitor-General  to  her 
Majest}'. 

f  Good  personal  appearance  goes  a  great  way  in  favor  of  a  public 
character,  as  in  a  Lord  Chatham  and  a  Mansfield  in  England,  and 
Washington  in  America.  On  this  head  Lord  North  was  not  felicitous. 
Since  the  daye  of  iEsop,  hardly  a  great  man  can  be  named  of  a  more 


300  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

without  daring  to  follow  that  of  any,  until  he  was  fixed  by  the 
stronger  mind  of  the  Germanic  Minerva.  The  choice  did 
'credit  to  her  penetration;  for  George  Grenville  had  too  many 
scruples  of  conscience  ;  the  flourishing,  versatile,  Charles 
Townshend  was  too  flashy  to  lead,  direct,  or  drive  any  great 

ungainly  figure.  The  staid  and  solemn  Junius,  in  his  thirty-ninth  Let- 
ter, speaks  of  him,  ironically,  as  a  minister  who  had  a  voice  to  per- 
suade, an  eye  to  penetrate,  and  a  gesture  to  command  ;  and  lest  pos- 
terity should  mistake  his  words,  he  adds,  in  a  note,  "  This  graceful 
minister  is  oddly  constructed.  His  tongue  is  a  little  too  hig  for  his 
mouth,  and  his  eyes  a  great  deal  too  big  for  their  sockets.  Every 
part  of  his  person  sets  natural  proportion  at  defiance.  At  this  pres- 
ent writing  (April,  1770)  his  head  is  supposed  to  be  much  too  heavy 
for  his  shoulders."  It  would  puzzle,  however,  the  executioner  to  de- 
capitate him  ;  he  would  not  know  where  his  body  ended,  or  head  be- 
gan. Mr.  West,  historical  painter  to  his  Majesty,  once  remarked  to 
the  author,  that  Lord  North  looked  more  like  a  toad  than  any  human 
being  he  ever  saw.  The  brilliant  Charles  Townshend,  when  Chancel- 
lor of  the  Exchequer,  said,  pointing  to  Lord  North,  "  See  that  great, 
heavy,  booby-looking,  bursten-bellied,  seeming  changeling.  You  may 
believe  me,  when  I  assure  you  it  is  a  fact,  that,  if  any  thing  should 
happen  to  me  [he  died  not  long  after],  he  will  succeed  to  my  place, 
and  very  shortly  after  come  to  be  First  Commissioner  of  the  Treasu- 
ry."— [Public  Characters  of  the  most  eminent  Personages  in  the  Parlia- 
ment of  Great  Britain,  considered  as  Statesmen,  Senators,  and  Public 
Speakers.  London.  1777.  p.  139.]  Yet  this  was  the  man,  whom  the 
Princess  Dowager  of  Wales,  whose  judgment  of  the  faculties  of  men 
was  never  doubted,  forced  in  a  manner  upon  the  King  for  his  Prime 
Minister  ;  a  man  as  unlike  Lords  Sandwich,  Holland,  Bute,  or  Charles 
Townshend,  as  can  well  be  conceived. 

Experience  has  long  since  taught  me  to  discard  the  nonsense  of 
phrenology  and  the  quackery  of  Lavaterism,  as  the  most  absurd  and 
unbenevolent  system  with  which  human  nature  has  been  insulted. 
When  I  see  external  deformity,  void  of  disease,  I  look  out,  almost  in- 
stinctively,  for  compensation  in  the  mind.  I  am  satisfied  of  the  folly 
of  judging  of  the  powers  and  bias  of  the  soul  by  its  case.  How  many 
handsome  fops  and  villains  has  society  been  pestered  with,  from  Ab- 
scdom  to  Lovelace  ?  Has  the  adorable  Creator  made  some  men  villains, 
and  then  punished  them  for  acting  according  to  his  material  construc- 
tion of  them  ? — No  opportunity  should  be  omitted  •'  to  justify  the  ways 
of  God  to  man." 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  301 

portion  of  the  nation,  whether  at  home  or  abroad  ;  and  the 
whiffling  Duke  of  Grafton  too  much  of  a  weathercock.  Lord 
North  was  the  very  man  to  administer  the  miserable,  half-way- 
measures  of  George  the  Third  towards  the  Americans,  who 
laughed  at  them  both.  His  Lordship  was  contented  to  be,  at 
times,  the  minister  of  the  interior,  irresponsible  cabinet,  without 
being  contemptible  ;  and  such  was  his  easy  disposition,  that,  in 
the  most  perturbed  seasons, — in  times  that  tried  men's  souls, — 
his  Lordship  would  sleep  and  snore  in  the  House  of  Commons 
amidst  the  thunders  of  the  opposition  ;  hence  he  was  compared 
to  a  top  ; — the  more  whipped,  the  sounder  it  sleeps.  To  judge 
of  his  character  for  pliability,  we  have  only  to  reflect  on  his 
coalition  with  Charles  Fox,  who  had  made  him  for  years  the 
object  of  his  keenest  invective  and  the  butt  of  his  most  pointed 
ridicide.  Nevertheless,  Lord  North  had  talents,  character,  good 
intentions,  fairness  of  mind,  and  manners  that  secured  him  the 
good  will  of  every  one  ;  hence  it  happened  that  he  was  among 
the  most  permanent  ministers  the  crown  ever  employed ;  for 
as  nobody  envied  him,  so  no  one  took  pains  to  undermine  and 
remove  him.  He  waddled  through  the  American  revolutiona- 
ry war  with  Lord  George  (Sackville)  Germaine  for  Secretary, 
Howe,  Burgoyne,  and  Clinton,  for  his  Generals,  in  a  conge- 
niality with  the  whole  group,  that  has  no  parallel  in  history  ; 
and  as  he  never  much  excited  our  resentment,  so  we  never  felt 
towards  him  a  grudge  like  that  towards  Lord  Hillsborough  and 
the  King's  sword-bearer,  the  successful  rival  of  Sir*  Jeffrey 
Amherst.* 

At  that  eventful  period  to  which  we  have  alluded,  Junius 
appeared  greatly  interested  in  the  parliamentary  debates.  It 
was  at  an  eve,  says  Mr.  Heron,  of  an  occasion  upon  which  the 
whigs  hoped,  at  last,  to  force  themselves  in  a  body  into  ad- 
ministration on  their  own  terms.  The  Grenvilles,  the  Marquis 
of  Rockingham,  with  their  respective  adherents,  were  now 
united.     The  Letter  of  Junius  to  the  King  had  just  excited 

*  Lord  Boutetourt,  Governor  of  Virginia. 


302  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

universal  attention.  The  bold  remonstrance  of  the  City  of  Lon- 
don increased  the  ferment.  It  appears  by  the  private  letters  of 
Junius  to  Wilkes  and  to  Woodfall,  that  he  was  roused  to  the 
utmost  solicitude  to  effect  a  change  of  ministers.  He  requests 
the  latter  to  give  notice  of  the  contemplated  co-operation, 
or  what,  on  such  occasions,  used  to  be  called  in  Boston  "  the 
long  pull,  the  strong  pull,  and  the  pull  altogether  ;  "  and  that  by 
the  extraordinary  method  of"  dispersing  hand-bills ; "  and  added 
to  his  request,  "  Pray  do  whatever  you  think  will  answer  this 
purpose  best,  for  now  is  the  crisis. ^^  At  this  period,  Mr.  Tay- 
lor remarks,  that  Junius  and  Lord, Chatham  still  fought  un- 
der the  same  banner  ;  and  Junius,  on  hearing  that  his 
Lordship  intended  to  support  the  Westminster  remonstrance 
by  going  to  the  Hall,  writes  to  his  printer  in  the  flush  of 
hope,  '•  I  have  no  doubt  that  we  shall  conquer  them  at  last ;  " 
and,  alluding  to  Chatham's  speeches  in  Parliament  at  the 
same  time,  he  says,  in  a  private  letter  to  Wilkes,  "  Chatham 
has  gallantly  throivn  away  the  scabbard,  and  never  flinched. 
From  that  moment  I  began  to  like  him."  [!]  * 

While  Junius  was  calling  on  the  people,  and  on  the  powers 
above  them  through  the  press.  Lord  Chatham  was  pouring 
forth  his  torrents  of  eloquence  in  Parliament  on  the  same  sub- 
jects, in  the  strains  which  we  have  recorded  in  the  form  of 
parallel  passages  in  the  preceding  chapter.  Mr.  Taylor  re- 
marks, that,  in  the  commencement  of  the  first  speech,  viz.  on 
the  ninth  of  January,  the  sentiments  and  expressions  of  Junius, 
for  the  space  of  ten  lines,  were  borrowed  from  what  7iow  ap- 
pears to  have  been  Lord  Chatham's  speech,  and  this  without 
any  acknowledgment,  though  the  Letter  was  written  nearly 
two  years  after  the  speech  was  made.  The  words  are  not 
exactly  the  same,  but  they  are  as  near  as  the  notes,  from 
which  they  are  supposed  to  be  taken,  would  render  neces- 
sary J  as  near  as  any  man,  writing  at  two  distant  periods, 
from  the  same  notes,  would  be  likely  to  make  them  ;  they  con- 

*  The  female  partridge  could  not  have  practised  a  better  lure. 


JUNIUS  AND  CHATHAM  PARALLELED.  303 

vey  the  same  thoughts,  in  the  same  order,  with  the  fidelity  of  a 
literal  translation.  "  Now,  in  what  way,"  says  Mr.  Taylor, 
"  is  this  to  he  accounted  for  ?  There  is  no  report  printed 
fi-om  which  the  passage  could  have  been  quoted,  nor  would 
the  plagiary  have  passed  without  observation  if  the  original  had 
been  known.  The  inference  is  unavoidable,  that  he,  who 
wrote  the  Letters,  was  likewise  the  Reporter  of  the  Speech."  [!] 
After  what  we  have  said,  repeated,  and  reiterated,  we  need 
not  add  our  inference. 

The  indefatigable  compiler  of  the  adduced  passages,  re- 
marks upon  them  thus  : — "  Many  other  passages  from  the  same 
speech  lead  to  the  conclusion,  that  Junius  had  it  in  his  memo- 
ry when  he  wrote  at  a  subsequent  period.  But  let  us  proceed 
to  the  second  debate,  and  see  whether  in  that  also  the  internal 
evidence  is  such  as  we  have  met  with  in  the  former.  In  the 
first  place  Junius  seems  to  have  borrowed  from  this  speech 
those  remarkable  metaphors,  the  political  i^tiZe,  and  the  feather 
that  adorns  the  royal  bird,  &ic.  To  have  taken  them  he  must 
have  heard  the  debate,  for  they  are  not  elsewhere  in  print. 
Secondly,  in  a  private  Letter  to  Wilkes,  he  speaks  of  cutting 
aioay  the  rotten  boroughs,  in  the  figurative  language  of  the 
speech,  and  with  the  same  doubts  as  to  the  pohcy  of  the  act. 
Thirdly,  he  not  only  alludes  to  the  proposal  of  Lord  Chat- 
ham to  increase  the  Knights  of  shires,  but  he  quotes  a  passage 
from  the  speech  before  us,  in  so  very  nearly  the  same  words, 
that  we  know  not  how  to  account  for  it,  unless  by  the  suppo- 
sition, that  he  was  himself  the  reporter.  Under  that  idea  the 
coincidence  exj)lains  itself;  though,  when  it  is  considered  that 
notes  only  were  taken  of  the  speech,  it  may  appear  surprising, 
that  the  two  passages,  when  fully  expressed,  should  bear  so 
close  a  i;esemblance  to  each  other.  But  it  is  probable,  that 
the  speech,  though  not  published  till  twenty  years  after,  was 
composed  while  the  original  was  fresh  in  the  writer's  memory, 
which  has  caused  it  to  be  so  interminsled  with  the  thoughts 
and  expressions  of  Junius  ;  for,  if  viewed  as  the  production 
of  another  mind,  it  is  equally  unaccountable  how  much  the 


304  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

speech  in  return  owes  to  the  Letters."  [Yet  this  unaccountable- 
ness  did  not  open  his  eyes  so  wide  as  to  see  the  truth.]  "  Lord 
Chatham  borrows  an  illustration  from  the  latter  with  the  same 
freedom  that  Junius  quotes  his  Lordship ;  and  there  is  an 
equal  departure  from  literal  precision  in  both  cases, — a  proof 
that  the  thoughts  at  first  all  emanated  from  the  same  mind,  and 
were  the  property  of  one  writer,  whatever  names  he  might  as- 
sume." Then  Mr.  Taylor  selects  some  particular  phrases, 
used  by  Chatham,  Junius,  and  Sir  Philip  Francis.  Indeed 
he  fills  a  chapter  of  twenty  pages  with  them,  and  makes  the 
same  application  to  his  favorite  supposition.* 

Duly  reflecting  on  the  labors  of  this  industrious  gentleman, 
our  feelings  towards  him  are  similar  to  what  we  should  expe- 
rience on  seeing  a  man  very  deeply  interested  in  making  a 
quick  journey  from  Boston  to  Worcester,  taking  the  road  to 
Lancaster ;  which  brings  to  mind  one  of  the  many  excellent 
sayings  of  Lord  Bacon,  viz.  "  A  lame  man  in  the  right  road 
will  beat  a  racer  in  the  wrong."  We  have  yet  another  feeling 
towards  this  writer,  lest,  after  our  free  use  of  his  parallels,  he 
should  say  with  Virgil,  in  his  beautiful  epigram,    ' 

Hos  ego  versiculos  feci,  tulit  alter  honores; 

and 
Sic  vos  non  vobis  nidificatis,  aves  ; 
Sic  vos  7ion  vobis  mellificatis,  apes. 

But  so  it  is  in  all  improvements,  where  one  man   stands  upon 
the  shoulders  of  another. 

*  "  Junius  occasionally  intersperses,  throughout  his  Letters,  max- 
ims, phrases  and  figures,  thrown  out  by  Lord  Chatham  viva  vocey — 
Taylor. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

NOTICES  OF  LORD  CAMDEX,  LORD  CHIEF  JUSTICE  MANSFIELD, 
LORD  HOLLAND,  THE  DUKE  OF  BEDFORD,  THE  DUKE  OF 
GRAFTON,  AND   LORD    AMHERST,    IN    REFERENCE    TO    JUNIUS. 

Our  task  would  be  incomplete,  nor  less  so  our  satisfaction, 
if  we  omitted  to  notice  certain  characters  placed  in  the  temple 
of  fame  by  Junius,  standing  like  so  many  statues  and  busts  on 
pedestals, — others  only  in  bold  relievo,  and  some  in  fresco  or 
everlasting;  plaster,  by  a  first-rate  artist.  Junius  gives  unqualified 
praise  to  two  characters  alone, — Lords  Camden  and  Rochford. 
Of  the  latter  we  know  only,  that  he  was  a  very  respectable 
ivvig  of  an  honorable  branch  of  a  venerable  trunk  of  nobility, 
and  was  honored  with  the  good  opinion  of  the  fastidious  Juni- 
us. We  "  no  further  seek  his  merits  to  disclose."  We  had  as 
lief  dig  in  the  mud  as  hunt  out  British  pedigrees  and  peer- 
ages, in  which  perplexing  process  we  Americans  are  liable  to 
ridiculous  mistakes,  gaining  no  credit  if  accurate,  and  losing 
much  if  otherwise.  The  Briton  delights  in  such  researches, 
while  we  colonists  never  troubled  ourselves  with  inquiries  of 
this  sort ;  for,  if  we  did,  in  some  portions  of  the  United  States 
we  should  be  brought  up  by  a  convict,  and  in  another  by  a 
Puritan  with  his  astringent  countenance.  The  old  world  gene- 
rally, the  Britons  particularly,  are  in  the  habit  of  looking  back, 
not  only  to  the  preterperfect,  but  to  the  preterpluperfect  tense  ; 
whereas  our  views  are  all  in  the  future,  to  the  glory  of  those 
whose  native  language  is  the  English.      Let   us  first  speak  of 

Lord  Camden. 

The  distinguished   figure,  which  Charles  Pratt,  Lord  Cam- 
den, made  during  William  Pitt's  career  of  renown,   and   even 
39 


306  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

since  that  splendid  period  of  English  history,  and  the  noble 
picture  of  him  by  the  masterly  hand  of  Junius,  mark  him  out 
an  object  of  particular  attention.  Besides,  Camden  is  a  name 
dear  to  us  Americans  ;  second  to  none  but  that  of  Pitt,  aUas 
Cnatham. 

When  this  last  named  great  statesman  was  forming  his  ever 
memorable  administration  in  July,  seventeen  hundred  and  ffty- 
seven,  he  desired  that  Mr.  Pratt,  then  a  favorite  pleader  at 
the  bar  of  the  House  of  Commons,  should  be  made  Attorney- 
General,  in  the  room  of  Sir  Robert  Henley  promoted.  As 
Mr.  Pratt  was  a  highly  valued  friend  of  Pitt  before  and  after  he 
became  Lord  Chatham,  enjoying  his  confidence  till  his  death, 
and  was,  after  it,  one  of  his  executors,  we  cannot,  consistently 
with  our  purpose  (which  is  the  connecting  of  the  most  interest- 
ing portion  of  British  history  with  that  of  America),  pass  him  by 
in  a  hurry,  more  especially  as  he  was  a  distinguished  favorite 
of  Junius,  as  well  as  the  dear  friend  oi  Lord  Chatham. 

He  was  the  son  of  Sir  John  Pratt,  Lord  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  educated  at  Eton  school,  and 
was  six  years  younger  than  his  friend  Pitt.  He  was  a  fellow 
of  King's  College,  Cambridge,  as  early  as  1731.  We  are 
told,  that  his  professional  practice  was,  for  many  years,  but 
narrow  ;  yet  in  1752  we  find  him  supporting  the  rights  of  Ju- 
ries in  opposition  to  William  Murray,  Esq.  afterwards  the  cele- 
brated Lord  Mansfield,  in  a  libel-case,  in  which  Mr.  Pratt's 
client  was  acquitted.  From  that  period,  his  path  gradually 
widened  before  him,  so  that,  in  1761,  he  was  constituted  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  and,  at  the  same  time, 
honored  with  knighthood.  "  Though  he  presided  with  dignity, 
weight,  and  impartiahty,  he  was  yet  more  distinguished  by  the 
boldness  and  independence  of  his  decisions."  When  the  fa- 
mous champion  of  the  people's  rights,  John  Wilkes,  was  ar- 
rested and  committed  to  the  tower.  Sir  Charles  Pratt  granted 
him  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus ;  and  when  he  was  brought 
before  the  court,  he  discharged  him  from  confinement.  May 
it  be  ever  remembered  that,  in  the  cause  of  the  rights  of  the 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  CAMDEN.  307 

people,  the  right  honorable  William  Pitt  and  Sir  Charles  Pratt 
marched  to  fame  under  the  same  banner.  In  the  year  1765 
he  was  created  a  Peer,  by  the  title  of  Earl  Camden,  and,  in 
1766,  was  appointed  Lord  High  Chancellor.  Soon  afterward 
he  was  suddenly  dismissed  by  his  Sovereign,  on  suspicion  that 
he  communicated  some  of  tbe  secrets  of  the  privy-council  to 
his  friend.  Lord  Chatham,  who  glanced  at  them  in  the  famous 
speech  in  the  House  of  Lords  already  quoted  ;  which  occasion- 
ed the  alarming  resignations  of  that  period.  It  is  universally 
known  in  this  country,  that  Lord  Camden  was  a  warm,  steady, 
and  consistent  advocate  of  the  great  American  cause,  in  which 
he  was  cordially  joined  by  Chatham  and  Rockingham  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  and  Barre  and  Burke  in  the  House  of  Com- 
mons. 

Earl  Camden's  life  was  protracted  till  April,  1 794. 

We  are  enabled  to  give  a  nearer  view  of  Lord  Chatham  and 
of  Lord  Camden  than  heretofore,  from  aid  afforded  us  by  our 
venerated  countryman,  Doctor  Franklin,  who  was  noticed  in 
a  particular  and  friendly  manner  by  both  of  them. 

Lord  Chatham  expressed  to  Dr.  Franklin,  on  hife  second 
visit  to  that  nobleman,  his  high  opinion  of  the  Jimerican  Con- 
gress, commending  their  temper,  moderation,  and  wisdom. 
He  inquired  much  and  particularly  concerning  the  state  and 
condition  of  the  country  ;  the  probability  of  their  perseverance ; 
the  difficulties  they  must  meet  with  in  adhering,  for  a  long 
time,  to  their  resolutions ;  the  resources  they  might  have  to 
supply  the  deficiency  of  commerce.  His  Lordship  expressed 
great  regard  and  warm  affection  for  America,  with  hearty 
wishes  for  her  prosperity,  and  that  government  might  soon 
come  to  see  its  mistakes  and  rectify  them  ;  and  intimated,  that, 
possibly  he  might,  if  his  health  permitted,  prepare  something 
for  its  consideration,  when  the  Parliament  should  meet  after 
the  holydays  ;  on  which  he  wished  to  have  Franklin's  senti- 
ments. "  I  mentioned  to  him,"  said  the  Doctor,  "  the  very 
hazardous  state  I  conceived  we  were  in,  by  the  continuance  of 
the  army  in  Boston  ;  that,  whatever  disposition  there  might  be 


308  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

in  the  inhabitants  to  give  no  just  cause  of  offence  to  the  troops, 
or  in  the  General  [GACt,]  to.  preserve  order  among  them,  an 
unpremeditated,  unforeseen  quarrel  might  happen  between 
perhaps  a  drunken  porter  and  a  soldier,  that  might  bring  on  a 
riot,  tumult,  and  bloodshed,  and  in  its  consequences  produce  a 
breach  impossible  to  be  healed  ;  that  the  army  could  not  pos- 
sibly answer  any  good  purpose  there,  and  might  be  infinitely 
mischievous  ;  that  no  accommodation  could  properly  be  pro- 
posed and  entered  into  by  the  Americans  while  the  bayonet 
was  at  their  breasts  ;  that,  to  have  any  agreement  binding,  all 
force  should  be  withdrawn." 

"  From  Lord  Chatham's,  I  went,"  says  the  Doctor,  •'  to 
wait  upon  Lord  Camden.  I  met  his  Lordship  and  family  in 
two  carriages,  just  without  his  gate,  going  on  a  visit  of  con- 
gratulation to  Lord  and  Lady  Chatham  on  the  recent  marriage 
of  their  daughter.  They  were  to  be  back  at  dinner  ;  so  I 
agreed  to  go  in,  stay  to  dinner,  and  spend  the  evening  there, 
and  not  return  to  town  till  next  moming.  We  had  that  af- 
ternoon and  evening  a  great  deal  of  conversation  on  our  Ameri- 
can affairs,  concerning  which  Lord  Camden  was  very  inquisi- 
tive;  and'I  gave  him  the  best  information  in  my  power.  I 
was  charmed  with  his  generous  and  noble  sentiments,  and  had 
the  great  pleasure  of  hearing  his  full  approbation  of  the  Con- 
gress and  \he.\v  petition,  of  which,  at  his  request,  I  afterwards 
sent  him  a  copy.  He  seemed  anxious,  that  the  Americans 
should  continue  to  act  with  the  same  temper,  coolness,  and 
wisdom,  with  which  they  had  hitherto  proceeded  in  most  of 
their  public  assembhes  ;  in  which  case  he  did  not  doubt  they 
would  succeed  in  establishing  their  rights,  and  obtain  a  solid 
and  durable  agreement  with  the  mother  country  ;  of  the  ne- 
cessity and  great  importance  of  which  agreement,  he  seemed 
to  have  the  strongest  impression."  * 

It  is  here  manifest,  that  neither  Lord  Camden,  nor  Lord 
Chatham,  nor  indeed  Franklin  himself  contemplated  an  entire 


*  Frnnklin's  Memoirs,  published  by  his  grandson. 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  CAMDEN.  309 

separation  of  the  two  countries.  Not  many  daj-s  after  these 
conversations,  Dr.  Franklin  received  a  card  from  Lord  Stan- 
hope,* expressing  Lord  Chatham's  wish,  that  he  would  be 
present  in  the  House  of  Lords,  when  he  intended  to  nrake  a 
motion  relative  to  the  speedy  removal  of  the  troops  Irom 
Boston . 

Dr.  Franklin  gives  an  animated  account  of  Chatham's 
speech  on  that  occasion.  It  was  then  his  Loi'dship  declared, 
of  our  first  Congress,  in  the  British  House  of  Peers,  that,  "  for 
solidity  of  reasoning,  force  of  sagacity,  and  wisdom  of  conclu- 
sion, under  such  a  complication  of  difficult  circumstances,  no 
nation,  or  body  of  men,  can  stand  in  preference  to  the  general 
Congress  at  Philadelphia  ;  and  that  all  attempts  to  impose  ser- 
vitude upon  such  men  must  be  vain  and  fatal  ;  and  that  if  min- 
isters persevere  in  misadvising  and  misleading  the  King,  that 
if  they  did  not  alienate  the  affections  of  his  subjects,  he  would 
affirm,  that,  the  American  jewel  out  of  it,  they  would  make 
the  Crown  not  worth  his  wearing." 

After  Lord  Chatham  had  denied  the,  right  of  Parliament  to 
tax  the  Americans  without  their  consent,  he  was  followed  by 
his  friend. 

Lord  Camden,  in  a  speech  never,  perhaps,  surpassed,  for 
learning,  perspicuity,  and  solid  argument,  said,  "  My  Lords,  I 
have  searched  the  matter,  and  I  declare,  not  only  as  a  states- 
man, a  politician,  and  a  philosopher,  but  as  a  common  law- 
yer, YOU  HAVE  NO  RIGHT  TO  TAX  AMERICA."  And  he  Stated 
some  cases  where  it  was  lawful  to  resist  Parhament.  In  this 
united  effort  at  conciliation  with  America,  Lords  Chatham 
and  Camden  strove  together  with  the  utmost  patriotic  zeal ; 
well  knowing  the  consequences  to  English  Liberty,  if  the 
spirit  of  it  should  be  extinguished  in  this  country. 

"  On  Friday  the  twenty-seventh  of  January,  1775,"  con- 
tinues  Dr.  Franldin,    "  I  waited   again   on   Lord  Chatham, 

*  Lord  Stanliope  was  an  able,  lionest,  philosophical,  and  patriotic 
man,  but  eccentric.  If  he  was,  in  external  appearance,  below,  he  was, 
in  mind  and  philanthropic  views,  above  his  titular  rank. 


310  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

when  he  acquainted  me,  in  a  long  conversation,  with  the  out- 
lines of  his  plan  of  concilialion,  parts  of  which  he  read  to  me  ; 
and  he  said,  that  he  had  communicated  it  only  to  Lord  Cam- 
ken,  whose  advice  he  much  relied  on,  particularly  in  the  law 
party 

Let  it  be  remembered,  that,  less  than  thirty  years  ago,  Lord 
Eldon  declared,  in  the  House  of  Lords,  that  "  the  author  of 
Junius,  if  not  himself  a  lawyer,  must  certainly  have  written  in 
concert  with  the  ablest  and  best  of  lawyers."  It  was  believed 
by  some  in  the  higher  circles,  that  Lord  Camden  and  Lord 
Temple  knew  the  author  of  Junius.* 

We   have   given   this   narrative  and  adduced  these  facts  to 
show,  that  there  was  not  only  a  personal  regard,  like  that  be- 
tween William   Pitt  and   Henry  Fox,   of  Eton-school   origin, 
but  that  a  confidential  one  existed   between  the  former  and 
Lord   Camden,   while  no   such    confidential    attachment  ever 
bound  together  Lord  Chatham  and   Lord  Holland  ;    their  po- 
litical walks,  private   occupations,   and  religious  opinions  were 
widely    different.       The    attachment    between    Chatham    and 
Camden  was  not  a  mere  contact  of  generous   feelings,   but  an 
amalgamation,  and  of  that   sort  which  never  suffered  separa- 
tion during  their  renowned  lives,  and  hardly  after  it. 
"  Oh  happy  friends  !  for  if  my  pen  could  give 
Immortal  life,  your  fame  should  ever  live, 
Fixed  as  the  Capitors  foundation  lies, 
And  spread  where'er  our  conquering  EagU  flies."  f 

*  "  I  know  enough  of  Juivius  to  know,  that  he  was  of  Lord  Temple's 
school,  and  that  he  wrote  that  paper  from  hints  or  materials  prompted 
by  him.  So  far  he  was  betrayed  in  one  of  the  Letters  to  Lord  Cam- 
den; for  in  that  Letter  he  touched  upon  a  fact  known  only  to  three 
persons,  Lord  Chatham,  Lord  Camden,  and  Lord  Temple." — (See  E. 
H.  Barker's  Letters  on  Junius,  p.  142.) 

f  "  Fortunati  ambo  !  si  quid  mea  carmina  possunt, 
Nulla  dies  unquam  memori  vos  eximet  sbvo: 
Dum  domus  iEnese  Capitoli  immobile  saxum 
Accolet,  imperiumque  pater  Romanus  habebit." 

ViRG.  JEn.  IX. 

The  above  is  Dryden's  translation  of  the  passage. 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  CAMDEN.  311 

Having  shown  how  Lord  Camden  and  Lord  Chatham  stood 
affected  towards  each  other,  let  us  see  how  Junius,  the 
man  behind  the  curtain,  stood  affected  towards  the  conspicuous 
Lord  Camden. 

I  think  I  have  explained  away  the  severe  reflection,  or  rath- 
er equivocal  accusation  against  Lord  Camden  in  the  first  Let- 
ter of  Junius,  insinuating  that  Mr.  Pitt  and  Lord  Camden  di- 
vided, in  effect,  one  half  of  the  empire  from  the  otlier,  merely 
to  destroy  George  Grenville  as  a  Prime  Minister  ;  a  most  art- 
ful lure,  sported  by  the  man  in  a  mask  to  elude  the  pursuit  of 
curiosity  and  vengeance. 

Lord  Camden's  friends  endured  a  little  mortification  when 
Junius  attributed  to  him  an  illegal  doctrine  respecting  the  sus- 
pension of  an  act  of  the  legislature  by  the  Crown,  in  the  recess 
of  Parliament,  on  the  plea  of  great  necessity  in  a  scarcity  of 
corn,  occasioned  by  an  inclement  season.  For  so  ascendant 
was  the  spirit  of  this  invisible  being  upon  public  opinion,  that 
his  approbation  or  disapprobation  was  felt  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest,  from  the  throne  to  the  play-house.  The  case  was 
this. 

There  was  a  failure  in  "  corn,^^  *  and  a  scarcity  all  over  Eu- 
rope. A  royal  proclamation  was  issued,  forbidding  any  further 
exportation,  and  thus  the  laws  were  made,  in  this  instance,  to 
give  way  to  the  mandates  of  the  King  and  Council  ;  and  this  ar- 
bitrary measure  was  advocated  by  Lord  Chancellor  Cam- 
den. The  Tories  instantly  turned  Whigs  and  patriots,  and 
condemned  the  deed  as  an  attack  on  the  constitution,  more 
dangerous  than  the  case  of  ship-money  in  the  reign  of  Charles 
the  First,  or  the  dispensing  power  assumed  by  James  the  Sec- 
ond. They  called  it  the  "-^  forty  days''  tyranny.''''  Lord  Cam- 
den vindicated  the  measure  on  the  ground  of  state  necessity, 
instead   of  saying,  as  Chatham  once  did,  "  I  am  aware  that  it 

*  In  England  they  call  corn  what  we  in  America  call  by  the  general 
name  o? grain  ;  restricting  the  former  term  to  viaize.  Thus  we  say,— 
The  crop  of  wheat  is  good,  but  the  corn  is  bad  :  It  is  a  good  year  for 
barley  and  rye,  but  bad  for  corn. 


312  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

is  a  step  against  law,  but  I  am  driven  to  it  to  obviate  the  great 
calamity  of  famine,  and  therefore  I  throw  myself  on  the  mercy 
of  my  country."  In  this  single  instance,  Lord  Chatham  was 
opposed  in  opinion  to  Lord  Camden  ;  and  so  was  the  steady 
and  consistent  Junius  ;  yet  while  they  disagreed  from  the 
great  law  Lord,  they  both  spoke  of  him  apologetically,  well 
knowing  the  sterling  integrity  of  the  man.  But  the  "  King^s 
Friends,''^ — high  prerogative  men, —  Tories,  or  by  whatever 
name  you  choose  to  designate  those  in  Parhament  who  stood 
opposed  to  the  principles  of  Chatham,  Camden,  and  Junius, — 
these  made  a  great  outcry,  indeed,  in  hopes  of  making  a  breach 
between  Camden  and  Chatham.  They  had  felt  and  dreaded 
their  union  and  co-operation,  and  in  this  case  they  acted  up- 
on the  devil's  motto, — "  Divide  and  conquer."  But  Chatham 
and  Junius,  knowing  their  hearts,  soon  dissipated  all  their  hopes 
on  that  head.  It  is  worthy  of  notice,  that,  on  this  question. 
Lord  Mansfield  spoke  against  the  power  of  the  Crown,  and, 
for  the  first. time,  stood  up  for  the  constitution  ;  but,  good  as 
his  ground  was,  he  was  afraid  to  tread  upon  it. 

Junius  stiffly  maintained  his  assertion  in  opposition  to  the 
declaration  of  Lord  Camden  ;  but  instead  of  pouring  forth  a 
torrent  of  invective  and  ridicule,  as  was  too  often  the  case  with 
him,  he  says,  in  a  style  of  unusual  respect,  "  With  regard  to 
Lord  Camden,  the  truth  is,  that  he  inadvertently  overshot  him- 
self, as  appears  plainly  by  that  unguarded  mention  of  '  a  ty- 
ranny of  forty  days,'  whicli  I  myself  heard."  Junius  com- 
mences his  Sixtieth  Letter,  under  the  signature  of  Philo-Ju- 
nius,  thus,  "  I  am  convinced,  that  Junius  is  incapable  of  wil- 
fully misrepresenting  any  man's  opinion,  and  that  his  inclina- 
tion leads  him  to  treat  Lord  Camden  with  particular  candor 
and  respect. ^^ 

Yet  all  these  /acts  are  but  trifling  indications  of  the  high  re- 
gard of  Junius  for  Lord  Camden,  compared  with  his  expres- 
sions in  his  final  Letter,  which  is  addressed  to  that  great  law- 
yer. It  is  in  a  strain  of  dignified  solicitude,  as  if  supplicating 
the  guardian  angel  of  Britain  to  preserve  from  injury  the  sa- 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  CAMDEN.  313 

cred  temple  of  the  laws,  endangered  by  its  Chief  Hierophant.* 
He  says,  in  a  style  of  remarkable  grandeur, 

"  My  Lord, — I  turn  with  pleasure  from  that  barren  waste, 
in  which  no  salutary  plant  takes  root,  no  verdure  quickens,  to 
a  character  fertile,  as  I  willingly  believe,  in  every  great  and 
good  qualification. 

"  I  call  you,  in  the  name  of  the  English  nation,  to  stand 
forth  in  defence  of  the  laws  of  your  country,  and  to  ex- 
ert, in  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice,  those  great  abilities,  with 
which  you  were  entrusted  for  the  benefit  of  mankind." — 
"  After  the  noble  stand  you  made  against  Lord  Mansfield 
upon  the  question  of  libel,  we  did  expect  that  you  would  not 
have  suffered  that  matter  to  have  remained  undetermined." — 
"  Your  Lordship's  character  assures  me,  that  you  will  assume 
that  principal  part  which  belongs  to  you,  in  supporting  the  laws 
of  England  against  a  wicked  judge,  who  makes  it  the  occu- 
pation of  his  life  to  misinterpret  and  pervert  them." — "  When 
the  contest  turns  upon  the  interpretation  of  the  laws,  you  can- 
not, without  a  formal  surrender  of  all  your  reputation,  yield  the 
post  of  honor  even  to  Loj'd  Chatham." — "  Considering  the 
situation  and  abilities  of  Lord  Mansfield,  I  do  not  scruple  to 
affn-m,  with  the  most  solemn  appeal  to  God  for  my  sincerity, 
that,  in  m?/ judgment,  he  is  the  very  worst  and  most  dangerous 
man  in  the  kingdom.  Thus  far  I  have  done  my  duty  in  en- 
deavouring to  bring  him  to  punishment.  But  mine  is  an  infe- 
rior ministerial  office  in  the  temple  of  justice.  I  have  bound 
the  victim,  and  dragged  him  to  the  altar.  Junius." 

We  know  not  how  this  article  concerning  Camden,  Chat- 
ham, and  Junius  will  strike  the  mind   of  our  reader  ;   but   for 

*  Madox  says,  that  the  Chief  Justiciarius  was  the  greatest  subject 
in  England.  Beside  presiding  in  the  King's  Conrt  and  in  the  Ex- 
cliequor,  he  was  originally,  by  virtue  of  his  office,  the  Regent  of  the 
Kingdom,  during  the  absence  of  the  Sovereign,  which,  till  the  loss  of 
Normandy,  occurred  very  frequently.  Writs,  at  such  times,  ran  in  his 
name,  and  were  tested  by  him. — History  of  the  Exchequer. 
40 


314  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

ourselves  we,  with  all  our  cautious  quality,  cannot  resist 
saying,  that  it  makes  strongly  in  favor  of  the  identification  of 
Junius  with  Chatham.  It  ajDpears,  that  Chatham  and  Cam- 
den were  bound  together  in  strict  friendship  all  their  lives  with- 
out any  interruption.  Forlunati  ambo,  indeed  !  The  closing 
Letter  of  Junius  and  the  executorship  of  Camden  rivet  our 
opinion,  and  strengthen  our  hypothesis.  Next  to  Lord  Cam- 
den, it  seems  that  Lord  Temple  was  the  confidential  friend  of 
Lord  Chatham.  This  friendship  was  once  unhappily  broken 
between  the  brothers,  but  soldered,  and  rendered  thereby 
stronger  than  ever.     We  next  raise  our  eyes  to 

Lord  Mansfield. 

William  Murray,  William  Pitt,  and  Charles  Pratt,  or,  as 
they  are  better  known  by  their  titles  of  Mansfield,  Chatham, 
and  Camden,  were  three  of  the  greatest  men  of  their  day. 
We  may  add  to  them  a  fourth,  Kdmund  Burke,  a  politician 
sui  generis. 

The  subject  of  this  rapid  sketch  was  early  distinguished 
as  a  very  able,  industrious,  and  learned  young  man,  and,  at 
length,  an  acute  and  solid  lawyer,  a  charming  speaker,  and 
accomplished  gentleman.  Though  immersed  in  the  dry  study 
of  the  law,  Mr.  Murray's  active  and  ambitious  mind  gave  con- 
stant proofs  of  its  ingenuity,  and  aided  him  to  a  refinement  of 
manners  superinduced  on  an  amiable  disposition,  which  im- 
parted an  air  of  high  breeding  and  elegance  ;  and  all  these  ac- 
complishments were  recommended  by  an  uncommonly  hand- 
some person,  totally  free  from  all  that  impatience,  which,  at 
times,  marked  and  marred  the  illustrious  Chatham.  There  was 
one  defect,  however,  which,  though  a  trait  of  an  amiable  disposi- 
tion, weakened  his  force  as  a  great  parliamentary  orator, — a 
dash  of  timidity,  that  induced  a  habit  of  discretion  or  prudence, 
for  which  the  Scotch  are  remarkable  all  the  world  over.  In 
this  respect  he  was  the  reverse  of  Mr.  Pitt,  who,  with  less 
learning,  had  more  genius  and  courage  of  all  kinds  ;  for  with 
a  Demosthenical  style  of  oratory,   and   a  fearless  heart  that 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  MANSFIELD.  3I5 

winged  his  words  with  lightning,  he  struck  down  all  before  him, 
frequently  covering  his  opponent  with  paleness  and  dismay. 
The  impetuous  and  domineering  manner  of  Chatham  some- 
times overwhelmed  the  cool  and  guarded  logic  of  Mansfield. 

Naturally  and  nationally  partial  to  the  Stuart  dynasty,  Lord 
Mansfield  was  yet  a  loyal  and  even  a  favorite  subject  of  King 
George  the  Third,  and  of  the  Princess  Dowager  of  Wales,  so 
early  as  the  time  when  it  was  supposed  that  Prince  George 
was  in  the  leading-strings  of  Lord  Bute. 

We  need  not  say,  that  Lord  Mansfield  was  a  Tory  and 
Lord  Chatham  a  Whig.*  Opposite  in  political  principles,  they 
were,  it  seems,  rivals  in  fame,  and,  as  far  as  we  know,  'n  the 
favor  of  the  Sovereign.  Some  have  thought  that  Lord  Chat- 
ham envied  Mansfield's  learning,  abilities,  and  influence,  and 
that  he  sought  occasion  in  Parliament  to  diminish  them.  He 
certainly  spoke  to  him  and  of  him  in  a  spirit  of  apparent  ran- 
cor, and  did  not  withhold  a  sarcasm  as  long  as  he  was  able  to 
utter  any  thing.     Henry  Fox  (Lord  Holland),   in   a   letter   to 

*  These  cant  terms,  having  been  long  since  engrafted  on  classical 
language,  have  become  fixed,  tliough  a  little  variant  in  the  United 
States  from  the  sense  they  bear  in  their  original  soil.  Tory,  in  England, 
means  one  who  adheres  to  the  ancient  constitution  of  the  state,  and  to 
the  apostolical  hierarchy  of  the  church  of  England. — Johnson.  Whig, 
one  who  advocates  the  constitutional  rights  of  the  people,  as  estab- 
lished at  the  British  revolution  in  l(i88.  In  America,  those  who  advo- 
cated resistance  to  British  encroachments,  during  the  reign  of  George 
the  Third,  were  called  Whigs;  while  Tory  is  synonymous  with  a  roy- 
alist, or  an  advocate  for  our  dependence  on  the  realm  of  Great  Britain; 
so  that  we  had  in  this  country  Episcopalian  Whigs,  and  high  Presby- 
terian Tories.  In  England,  I  have  seen  tlie  om/ocmc^  of  Whiggism, 
and  often  the  unobtrusive  and  amiable  carriage  of  Toryism.  Our  cele- 
brated countryman  Dr.  Franklin,  when  colony-agent,  tried  in  vain,  for 
a  series  of  years,  to  get  access  to  Mr.  William  Pitt,  though  well  ac- 
quainted with  his  private  secretary,  Mr.  Wood,  when  he  might  have 
met  with  no  difficulty  in  speaking  with  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  Mans- 
field. In  process  of  time,  Lord  Chatham  returned  Franklin's  visit  in 
Craven  street,  and  Lord  Mansfield  took  particular  care  to  notice,  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  our  first  minister,  John  Adams. 


316  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

the  Marquis  of  Hariington  gives  an  account  of  Pitt's  wonder- 
ful eloquence,  the  day  preceding,  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
which  he  describes  in  strains  of  rapture.  His  letter  begins 
thus. — "  More  news  !  Pitt  entertained  us  again  yesterday  ; 
and  I  never  wished  more  than  yesterday  for  your  Lordship, 
for  the  pleasure  it  would  have  given  you.  I  sat  next  Murray, 
who  suffered  for  an  hour" 

We  would  ask,  in  passing,  whether  any  one  was  ever  known 
to  treat  that  great  man  with  the  like  harshness  of  language,  even 
to  bitter  invective,  Junius  alone  excepted  ?  It  has  been  often 
remarked,  that  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  Mansfield  was  seen 
to  turn  pale  and  tremble,  when  Lord  Chatham  rose  up  and 
turned  his  menacing  eyes  upon  him.  It  could  not  be  entirely 
for  his  advising  and  aiding  the  ratification  of  the  peace  in 
1763,  although  that  had  a  powerful  operation  in  the  mind  of 
the  administrator  of  the  war  against  France  ;  for  he  indulged 
himself  in  the  like  strains  of  invective  before  that  period. 
Every  one  knows  that  the  prime  agent  in  making  that  abom- 
inable peace  was  the  Earl  of  Bute ^  and  that  that  nobleman  re- 
garded his  countryman  Lord  Mansfield  as  an  oracle  in  every- 
thing ;  and  it  is  as  well  known,  than  an  animosity  between 
Chatham  and  Mansfield  grew  up  and  increased  from  the  year 
1762  to  the  close  of  the  life  of  the  former. 

Earl  Mansfield  invariably  voted  against  the  repeal  of  our 
obnoxious  stamp  act.  The  celebrated  protest,  which  followed 
the  repeal,  if  not  written  originally  by  him,  was  certainly  drawn 
up  under  his  eye,  and  defended,  word  by  word,  by  the  same 
personage.  He  uniformly  and  steadily  advocated  the  coer- 
cion- of  these  colonies.  In  1770  he  supported  the  partial  re- 
peal of  the  port-duties,  but  carefully  continuing  that  Trojan 
horse,  the  duty  on  tea,  which  the  British  to  this  day  consider 
the  immediate  cause  of  their  unhappy  contention  with  and  final 
loss  of  America.  When  the  whig  phalanx,  with  Lord  Rocking- 
ham at  its  head,  and  Burke  its  cornet,  went  out  of  office,  they 
left  the  declaratory  act  as  a  salvo  for  the  honor,  or,  as  some 
imagined,  the  deserted  power  of  Great  Britain,  Lord  Mansfield 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  MANSFIELD.  317 

united  with  the  administration  in  thinking,  that  the  act  for  lay- 
ing on  the  port-duties  wouhi  be  the  means  of  breathing  a  soul 
into  the  declaratory  act,  which,  without  it  or  some  other  spe- 
cies of  acquiescence  and  active  acknowledgment  on  the  part 
of  America,  must,  bethought,  remain  lifeless,  nugatory,  and 
ineffective  ;  for  he  looked  upon  the  re})eal  of  the  stamp  act  as  a 
tacit  relinquishment  of  the  supreme  authority  of  Britain  over 
this  country.  In  a  word,  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  was  an  uni- 
forni  and  hearty  supporter  of  all  the  measures  of  George  the 
Third  in  striving  to  bring  America  to  his  feet.  Yet  every  co- 
ercive measure,  from  the  stamp  act  in  17G4  to  our  declaration 
of  independence,  produced  a  directly  contrary  effect  to  that 
which  its  abettors  predicted.  It  is  remarkable,  however,  that 
Mansfield  built  all  bis  arguments  and  reasoning  upon  the  single 
supposition,  that  America  had, /row  the  beginning  of  her  histo- 
ry, aimed  at  independency,  and  that  the  utmost  the  people  of 
America  would  ever  be  prevailed  upon  to  consent  to,  would  be 
an  acknowledgment  of  the  personal  supremacy  of  the  King  of 
Great  Britain,  detached,  in  that  instance,  from,  and  unconnect- 
ed with  his  Parliament.  And  this  may  he  considered  as  a 
renewed  proof  of  the  superior  sagacity  of  that  very  able  man. 
If  Lord  Chatham  did  not  see  this  determination  in  the  leading 
men  of  New  England  and  in  Virginia,  it  was  because  he  would 
not. 

There  certainly  was  something  very  much  resembling  hatred 
between  Mansfield  and  Chatham  in  the  reign  of  the  Third 
George.  Ambition,  the  pride  of  great  minds,  is  liable  to 
convert  generous  rivalship  and  competition  into  envy,  which 
sees  nothing  in  a  rival  in  a  fair  light.  This  unhappy  pas- 
sion grudges  due  praise  to  the  merit  of  another,  and  natu- 
rally generates  aversion,  a  corrosive  mixture,  which  is  apt  to 
acquire,  in  advanced  life,  the  morbid  acrimony  of  hatred  and 
malice,  and  sometimes  the  venom  of  revenge.  We  have  never 
been  able  to  detect  very  much  of  it  in  the  Lord  Chief  Justice. 
A  man  in  that  station  ought  to  be  as  fiee  from  it  as  an  Archbish- 
op in  his,  though  he  was  so  imprudent  as  to  soil  his  ermine  with 


318  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

politics.  Whether  there  be  any  symptoms  of  venom  or  re- 
venge in  the  writings  of  Junius,  is  left  to  the  decision  of  every 
judicious  and  candid  reader. 

While  the  Earl  of  Chaiham  was  in  the  storms  of  political 
strife,  and  sometimes  in  its  hurricanes,  Lord  Mansfield  was 
preserved  by  a  gentle  spirit  from  all  such  tempests,  and,  we 
may  add,  from  their  heart-sinking  calms.  Until  his  house  was 
destroyed,  and  his  library  and  manuscripts  burnt  by  a  London 
mob,  he  had  gone  through  life  with  an  unrumpled  temper; 
whereas  Chatham  had  encountered  enough  to  ruffle  the  tem- 
per of  an  Epictetus  or  a  Socrates.  He  saw  a  man,*  who  was 
never  consulted  in  any  negotiation  before,  nor  ever  labored  for 
his  country,  with  a  single  stroke  of  his  pen,  assign  to  France 
and  Spain  the  fruits  of  conquests  which  had  cost  him  the  deep- 
est thought  and  consideration  to  plan,  and  Englishmen  the  ut- 
most exertion  to  achieve.  Who  can  wonder  at  his  indigna- 
tion ? 

It  appears  that  Junius  had  taken  as  fixed  a  resolution 
to  pull  down  Lord  Mansfield,  as  he,  with  Lord  Bute  and 
their  respective  adherents,  had  to  divest  Chatham  of  his 
vast  popularity,  and  drive  him  from  the  service  of  his  King 
and  Country.  Neither  of  them  obtained  his  wish  entirely. 
Chatham's  sun  sat  in  all  its  glory ;  while  Mansfield's  seemed  to 
go  down  in  a  cloud,  from  the  truculent  fury  of  a  London  mob, 
totally  blind  to  his  merits,  and  incapable  of  comprehending  his 
errors ! 

Henry  Fox, — Lo7'd  Holland. 
To  my  view  it  appears  clearly,  that  both  Junius  and  Lord 
Chatham  had  a  regard  or  forbearing  friendship  for  Lord  Hol- 
land, without  that  amalgamation  which  appears  to  have  subsist- 
ed between  Chatham,  Camden,  and  Lord  Temple,  and  even 
George  Grenville.  Taking  this  for  granted,  we  shall  try, 
in  this  sketch,  to  explain  it ;  and  if  we  cannot,  others  may 
from  our  imperfect  hints. 

*  The  Duke  of  Bedford. 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  HOLLAND.  3 1 9 

We  have  said  already,  that  Mr.  Fox  and  Mr.  Pitt  were  knit 
together  in  friendship  at  Eton  school.  Fox  was  the  elder 
by  three  years.  They  were  young  men  of  different  constitu- 
tions, complexions,  and  habits.  Fox  was  one  of  those  dark- 
visaged,  iron-fibred  men,  more  resembling  one  of  our  aborigi- 
nal Indian  warriors  of  the  a  ery  first  rank,  than  what  he  really 
was,  a  man  of  pleasure  in  a  refined  society.  Frank,  generous, 
and  unguarded  in  his  temper,  he  had  a  kindness  in  his  man- 
ners that  attached  people  to  him  of  both  sexes.  He  was, 
however,  sadly  addicted  to  gaming,  without  a  sordid  feeling, 
being  universally  respected  as  a  man  of  honor,  spirit,  and  in- 
tegrity. 

Fox  and  Pitt  were  frequently  opposed  to  each  other  as  far 
back  as  the  year  1754.  The  latter  treated  him,  at  times,  as 
he  did  every  other  opponent,  and  sometimes  worse  5  yet  each 
for  the  other  had  a  steady  friendship,  partaking  of  kindred  af- 
fection, rather  than  congeniality  of  mind  and  habits.  If  Pitt 
said  a  very  severe  thing  in  debate,  and  none  could  say  severer, 
which  seemed  to  wound  the  feelings  of  his  old  school-fellow, 
he  generally  followed  it  with  something  soothing.  With  keen- 
ness of  remark  he  commonly  mixed  sometliing  commendatory, 
but  in  few  words ;  his  friendship  for  Mr.  Fox  appears  to 
have  been  of  that  kind  which  ever  excludes  gaudy  eulogy, — 
like  that  of  one  good-natured,  overbearing  brother  for  another. 
Though  naturally  quick,  passionate,  and  resentful,  it  was  ap- 
parent to  all  in  the  House,  that  Fox  bore  the  lash  of  the 
"  great  Commoner  "  with  wonderful  coolness,  and  when  very 
severe,  in  a  sort  of  sullen  silence,  as  much  as  to  say, — How 
can  you  treat  me  so  !  On  one  occasion,  when  the  debate  had 
been  very  warm,  and  tlie  flagellation  severe,  and  tlie  taunts 
personal,  Mr.  Pitt  declared  to  the  House,  that  he  never  de- 
scended to  personality  towards  Mr.  Fox  ;  who,  on  his  part, 
wished  that  every  evil  might  befall  him,  if,  when  Secretary  of 
State,  he  had  said,  as  was  suspected,  or  hinted  any  thing  to 
the  King  (George  the  Second)  to  Mr.  Pitt's  disadvantage ;  for 
the  old  monarch  was  very  partial  to  Fox,  and  almost  hated  Pitt. 


320  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

The  honorable  fact  was,  Mr.  Fox  was  proud  of  the  extra- 
ordinary talents  of  Lord  Chatham  without  envying  his  friend, 
— a  brilliant  proof  of  his  noble  disposition. 

Lord  Chesterfield,  too  little  known  in  America,  and  only  by 
his  lightest  productions, — the  Letters  to  his  Son, — says,  that 
"  Mr.  Henry  Fox  had  very  great  abilities  and  indefatigable  in- 
dustry in  business  ;  great  skill  in  managing  (that  is,  corrupt- 
ing) the  House  of  Commons,'  and  a  wonderful  dexterity  in  at- 
taching individuals  to  him  ;  and  that  he  wisely  and  punctually 
performed  whatever  he  promised,  and  most  liberally  rewarded 
their  attachments  and  dependence.  By  these  and  other  means 
tliat  can  be  easily  imagined,  he  made  himself  many  personal 
friends  and  political  dependants."  But  Chesterfield,  that  com- 
petent judge  of  mankind  and  of  motives,  adds,  "  He  had  no 
fixed  principles  either  of  religion  or  morality ;  and  was  too 
unwary  in  ridiculing  and  exploding  them.^^  * 

Mr.  Heron,  in  a  note  on  Junius,  says,  "  Mr.  Fox  was  one 
of  the  most  amiable  of  men  in  private  life, — as  a  father,  len- 
der, and  attentive  to  educate  his  children  upon  that  plan  which 
his  notions  of  virtue,  ability,  and  accomplishments,  made  him 
believe  to  be  best.  His  morality  was  that  of  honor  ;  his  po- 
litical principles  had  been  learned  in  the  school  of  Walpole." 
It  is  probable  that  the  eagle-eyed  Chatham  saw  all  this  and 
more,  and  therefore  deemed  him  hardly  fit  to  advise  and  direct 
a  Sovereign,  whosejiigh  office  connected  him  with  the  church 
as  well  as  the  state,  and  who  was  unusually  attached  to  all  the 
forms  and  ceremonies  of  the  Episcopal  church.  Chatham,  how- 
ever, employed  him  long  in  the  highly  responsible  and  confiden- 
tial office  of  Secretary  at  War,  during  the  whole  of  his  famous 
administration.  George  the  Second  was  very  desirous  of  secur- 
ing the  services  of  Mr.  Fox  in  his  cabinet.  He  used  to  say  he 
could  understand  all  he  said ;  but  that  he  could  not  always  com- 
prehend the  meaning  of  the  eloquent  speeches  made  to  him  by 

*  Yet  he  kept  in  his  family  the  Rev.  Dr.  Francis,  the  father  of  Sir 
Philip,  and  the  translator  of  Horace,  for  his  Chaplain. 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  HOLLAND.  321 

his  Secretaries  and  Minister,  Lord  Chesterfield  and  Mr.-  Pitt. 
When  the  latter  was  called  to  form  an  administration,  he  would 
not  admit  Fox  into  the  government,  or  associate  with  him  in 
council.  He  doubtless  knew  somewhat  of  his  habits,  or  his 
notions  of  things,  unfitting  him  for  a  privy  counsellor  to  such 
an  orthodox  Prince  as  George  the  Third.  Mr.  Fox  held  the 
lucrative  and  highly  responsible  post  of  Secretary  at  War,  dur- 
ing Pitt's  renowned  administration,  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of 
that  minister. 

When  the  new  ministry  was  on  the  tapis,  the  gossiping  Duke 
of  Newcastle  asked  Mr.  Pitt,  invidiously,  "  if  he  could  bear  to 
act  UNDER  Mr.  Fox  ?  "  Pitt  replied,  "  Leave  out  under,  my 
Lord.  It  will  never  be  a  word  between  us.  Mr.  Fox  and  I 
shall  never  quarrel."  Just  before  Lord  Bute  abandoned  the 
helm,  Henry  Fox  was  created  LdOrd  Holland  ;  and  then  he 
became,  in  a  degree  odious,  from  a  popular  suspicion,  that  he 
was.  the  confidential  friend  of  that  very  unpopular  Scotch  no- 
bleman, and  accordingly  he  was  accused  of  malversation  in  of- 
fice, and  that  charge  was  actually  made  in  a  very  bold  remon- 
strance to  the  King  from  the  City  of  London  ;  in  which 
Lord  Holland  was  characterized  as  "  a  paymaster,  the  public 
defaulter  of  unaccounted  millions,''''  on  whom  the  King  had  con- 
ferred pubhc  honors  and  employments,  instead  of  punishment. 
This  solemn  charge  excited  uneasiness  in  Junius,  who  says 
to  his  printer,  Woodfall,  in  a  private  letter,  July  21,  1769, — 
"  1  wish  Lord  Holland  may  acquit  himself  with  honor.  If 
his  cause  he  good,  he  should,  at  once,  have  published  that  ac- 
count." 

L^pon  this.  Lord  Holland  came  out  in  print,  and  justified 
himself.  To  the  foregoing  passage,  from  the  Letter  of  Ju- 
nius, the  editor  of  Woodfall's  last  edition  says,  "  The  editor 
has  already  observed,  in  the  Preliminary  Essay,  that  Junius 
appears  to  have  uniformly  entertained  a  good  opinion  of,  or  at 
'east  a  partiality  for,  Lord  Holland."    The  remark  is  not  new ; 

was  noticed  long  ago. 
41 


322  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

We  shall  call  up  but  one  more  witness  to  prove  the  very- 
friendly  feeling  of  Junius  towards  the  virtuous  heathen, — I 
mean  the  Roman  Senator  and  paymaster.  It  bears  the  genu- 
ine marks  of  Junius,  which  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  several 
Letters  collected  under  the  head  of  "  Miscellaneous,''''  in  Dr. 
John  Mason  Good^s  edition  of  them,  published  hy  the  Younger 
Woodfall. 

In  October  1771,  Junius  was  attacked  and  criticized  by  a 
writer  in  "  The  Pubhc  Advertiser,"  who  called  himself  "  An 
Old  Correspondent,^^  and  who  turned  out  to  be  Young  Charles 
Fox,  son  of  Lord  Holland,  whom  Junius  condescended  to  no- 
tice thus  : 

To  the  Printer  of  the  Public  Advertiser. 

"  Sir, — If  the  pert  youth,  who  calls  himself  an  old  corre- 
spondent, and  who  makes  free  with  Junius,  does  not  know  the 
difference  between  contact  and  collision,  nor  between  the  fric- 
tion which  produces  the  electrical  powers,  and  the  action  of 
the  flint  and  steel  which'  produces  sparks  of  fire,  his  ignorance 
must  be  deplorable.  But  what  right  has  he  to  change  the 
terms  ? — Why  contact,  when  Junius  says  collision  ?  When 
this  pert  youth  asks  what  virtue  there  is  in  Mr.  Wilkes,  I  wish 
he  would  tell  us  what  fire  there  is  in  flint  and  steel.  It  is  ac- 
tion that  makes  them  sparkle  ;  and  if  there  be  any  thing  com- 
bustible in  the  passions  of  Mr.  Nash,  a  single  spark  may  set 
him  on  fire. 

"Again.  Junius  admits  the  strict  right  of  pressing  seamen, 
but  denies  the  King's  right  to  arm  his  subjects  in  general,  ex- 
cepting in  case  of  invasion.  This,  my  pretty  Black  Boy 
calls  a  retraction  of  Junius's  first  concession,  and  applies  to 
his  aged  father  (or  an  old  woman's  proverb.  Junius  speaks 
of  sojleninfr  the  symptoms  of  a  disorder.  The  Black  Boy 
changes  the  terms  again,  and  destroys  the  allusion.  The  rest 
of  his  letter  is  of  a  piece  with  these  instances  ;  a  misrepresenta- 
tion of  Junius,  equally^  pert,  false,  and  stupid.  Ex  his  discs 
omnia. 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  HOLLAND.  323 

"  I  know  nothing  of  Junius,  [!]  *  but  I  see  plainly,  that  he 
has  designedly  spared  Lord  Holland  and  his  family.  Wheth- 
er Lord  Holland  be  invulnerable,  or  whether  Junius  should 
be  wantonly  provoked,  are  questions  worthy  the  Black  Boy''s 
consideration.  Anti-Fox." 

Whatever  impression  this  letter  may  make  on  others,  I  con- 
fess it  makes  a  strong  one  upon  me.  It  appears  to  clinch 
the  nails  already  driven.  Of  the  innumerable  assailants  of 
Junius  of  every  calibre,  he  could  have  swept  them  all  aside 
like  so  many  insects ;  but  here  was  one  written  by  a  boy, 
crowded  with  misrepresentations  and  errors,  which  Junius 
nevertheless  deemed  worthy  of  his  deliberate  notice  ;  for  this 
Letter  is  not  a  careless  production  ;  and  though  the  very  ex- 
tremity of  the  lower  limb,  we  learn — ex  pede  Herculem.  The 
whole  composition  afibrds  internal  evidence,  that  it  was  not 
written  to  Lord  Holland's  pet  alone,  but  to  reach  Little  PickWs 
Papa  also.  The  whole  Letter  is  masterly  among  the  familiar 
ones.  It  gags  the  boy,  and  admonishes  him  not  to  exercise  his 
gosling  pen  upon  the  friend  of  his  father  and  family.  When  we 
consider  the  extremely  faulty  indulgence  of  Lord  Holland  to- 
wards his  brilliant  son,  Charles,  the  Letter  of  Anti-Fox  must 
have  been  not  a  little  nettling,  as  it  ridicules  the  ignorance  of  a 
youth,  whom  the  over  fond  father  used  to  exhibit  to  his  com- 
pany as  a  prodigy  of  learning  and  talents. 

If  Junius  saw  that  it  was  proper  to  check  the  too  forward 
boy,  he  took  special  care  not  to  inflict  a  wound  that  would  leave 
a  scar  behind  ;  his  stroke  only  affected  the  epidermis,  a  black 
mark  which  the  boy  received  from  the  black  man,  his  doting 
father,  and  which  was  therefore  no  moral  stain  upon  the  son.f 

*  Here  it  seems  Junius  kneio  nothing  of  himself!  If  the  attentive 
reader  will  put  this  and  that  together,  there  is  little  doubt  but  he 
and  the  author  will  come  out  at  the  end  of  the  same  road;  and,  on 
looking  back  upon  it,  he  will  wonder  he  never  took  it  before. 

f  He  who  doubts  this  may  read  "  CuRYSAii  or  the  Adventures  of  a 
Guinea^''  written  by  Charles  Johnstone ;  a  coarse  historical  satire,  in 
which  there  are  but  two  good  characters  to  be  found,  namely,  the 
Right  Hon.  WiUiam  Pitt  and  General  Wolfe.    Coarse  as  it  is,  it  doubt- 


324  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

The  language  of  the  whole  Letter  was, — Be  quiet,  and  pro- 
voke not  one  who  is  able  to  demolish  you,  and  who  has  no 
disposition  to  trouble  any  of  Lord  Holland's  family,  vulnerable 
as  the  head  of  it  is.* 

The  Letter  of  Anti-Fox  is  worth  preserving.  It  bears  the 
indubitable  impress  of  Junius.  It  shows  the  writer's  tender- 
ness towards  Lord  Holland  and  his  family,  and  his  friendship 
in  condescending  to  check  a  youth,  lest  he  should  injure  them 
or  himself.  He  lets  them  know,  by  his  signature,  and  by  his 
allusion  to  his  swarthy  visage,  that  he  knew  him,  which  was 
enough  to  arrest  his  hardihood.  It  is  valuable  on  another  ac- 
count. It  confirms  what  was  said  in  our  chapter  on  acknowl- 
edged "  Difficulties  to  he  removed"  where  we  said  that  Ju- 
nius must  have  stipulated  with  his  conscience  not  to  boggle  at 
an  untruth^  and  here  we  have  a  glaring  instance  of  it ;  for  he 
makes  no  scruple  of  saying  the  thing  which  was  not.  How 
could  he  HIMSELF  say,   "  I  know  nothing  of  Junius  ?  " 

He  must  have  reasoned  thus  with  his  conscience. — Strata- 
gem is  allowed  to  be  the  subhme  part  of  war,  where  the  hero 
holds  up  an  appearance  of  something  which  he  does  not  intend, 
while  under  that  mask  he  secures  an  important  object.  U, 
then,  a  consummate  military  commander  may,  unblamed,  act 
a  lie  in  his  plan  of  attack  or  defence,  and  call  it  by  the  soften- 
ed name  of  ruse  de  guerre,  why  may  not  I  write,  occasionally, 

less  gave  origin  to  the  JVorth  Briton,  and  that  to  the  celebrated  Let- 
ters OF  Junius. 

*  Robert  Bissd,  LL.  D.,  in  his  History  of  George  the  Third,  says, 
(in  a  note,  Vol.  iv.  p.  4,)  that,  when  he  first  came  to  London,  he  was 
struck  with  surprise  at  the  free  and  easy  terms  in  which  some  of  the 
butchers  and  lower  adherents  of  Charles  Fox  accosted,  at  the  hustings^ 
a  personage  of  his  transcendent  superiority.  It  was  in  the  endearing 
style  of  fond  comrades,  on  a  footing  of  perfect  equality, — "  Charles ! 
my  sweet  boy, — God  bless  your  black  face  ! — donH  be  afraid,  my  lad, 
WE  are  your  friends.''^  No  such  thing  ever  occurred  in  Boston,  demo- 
crats as  we  are.  No, — our  elections  are  conducted  with  great  order 
and  personal  decorum ;  and  our  legislative  assemblies,  in  a  style  and 
manner,  which  some  of  the  European  legislatures  would  do  well  if  they 
imitated. 


NOTICE  OF  THE   DUKE  OF  BEDFORD.  325 

a  falsehood  to  elude  detection,  and  secure  my  otherwise  en- 
dangered life, — I,  who  am  a  political  reformer, — a  redresser 
of  wrongs,  and  the  champion  of  rights  ?  Shall  the  bloody  steel 
alone  advance  in  safety  under  an  ^Egis  of  disguise,  and  shall 
the  feebler  pen  be  deprived  of  the  like  protection  and  safe- 
guard ? 

The  Duke  of  Bedford. 

As  the  rich  Duke  of  Bedford  has  had  a  double  portion  of 
JuNius's  scorn,  let  us  inquire  into  the  cause  of  it. 

The  Duke  of  Bedford,  to  whom  Junius  addressed  the  bit- 
ter letter,  dated  the  nineteenth  of  September,  17G9,  became, 
from  several  causes,  the  richest  subject  in  the  realm.  Accord- 
ing to  that  letter,  it  appears,  that  his  immense  wealth,  instead  r^ 
of  elevating  him  in  the  eyes  of  tiie  considerate,  and  widening 
his  sphere  of  benevolent  usefulness,  operated,  like  an  enormous 
weight,  to  lower  him  down  in  the  public  estimation.  Yet  a 
very  rich  man  will  always  have  very  great  influence  in  such  a 
community  as  England,  as  w'ell  as  in  our  own. 

This  spoiled  child  of  fortune  was  sent  ambassador  to 
France  by  the  Earl  of  Bute,  on  the  very  critical  occa- 
sion of  the  peace,  and  had  the  honor,  or,  according  to  the 
popular  voice,  the  infamy,  of  negotiating  the  inadequate  peace 
of  1763.  On  his  return  to  England,  he  quarrelled  with  Lord 
Bute,  and  grossly  insulted  the  King.  Such  is  the  arrogance 
of  riches.* 

John  Russell,  Duke  of  Bedford,  had  reason  for  boasting 
of  a  long  line  of  illustrious  ancestry  ;  yet  was  he  rendered 
contemptible  and  even  odious  by  the  pen  of  Junius,  who 
speaks  of  him  in  a  tone  of  horror.  During  the  reigns  of  King 
William  and  of  Queen  Anne,  the  head  of  the  House  of  Rus- 

*  On  one  occasion,  "  the  Duke  demanded  an  audience  of  George 
the  Third  ;  reproached  him,  in  plain  terms,  with  his  duplicity,  baseness, 
falseli&»d,  treachery,  and  hypociisy ;  repeatedly  gave  him  the  lie ;  and 
left  him  in  convulsions."  These  are  the  words  of  Junius,  in  a  note  to 
his  Twenty-third  Letter. 


326  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

sell  was  distinguished  among  the  most  zealous  of  the  whigs, 
To  this  degenerate  one,  Junius  speaks  thus.  "  You  are  in- 
deed a  very  considerable  man.  The  highest  rank,  a  splen- 
did fortune,  and  a  name  glorious  till  it  was  yours,  were  suf- 
ficient to  have  supported  you  with  meaner  abilities,  than  I 
think  you  possess.  From  the  first  you  derived  a  constitutional 
claim  to  respect ;  from  the  second,  a  natural  extensive  authori- 
ty ;  the  last  created  a  partial  expectation  of  hereditary  virtues. 
The  use  you  have  made  of  these  uncommon  advantages 
mi2;ht  have  been  more  honorable  to  yourself,  but  could  not  be 
more  instructive  to  mankind."  He  then  touches  on  several 
little,  disgraceful  things,  of  a  public,  domestic,  and  middle 
character ;  among  them  he  records  the  woful  fact,  that  a 
country  attorney  horsewhipped  the  Duke,  with  equal  justice, 
severity,  and  perseverance,  on  the  race-ground  at  Litchfield. 
Such  was  the  general  character  of  the  representative  of  Lord 
Bute  at  the  court  of  Versailles, — a  man,  says  Junius,  who  had 
as  little  feeling  for  his  own  dignity,  as  for  the  welfare  of  his 
country. 

Mr.  Pitt  had  no  objection  to  a  peace  with  France  and  Spain, 
provided  it  were  made  on  conditions  consistent  with  the  vigor 
and  success  with  which  he  had  carried  on  the  war.  But  what 
must  have  been  his  mortification  on  seeing  persons  who  were 
never  concerned  or  consulted  in  any  negotiation  before  (as  was 
the  case  with  the  Duke  of  Bedford)  assigning  to  the  enemy,  with 
the  "  single  stroke  of  his  pen,"  conquests,  which  it  had  cost  Lord 
Chatham  the  deepest  consideration  to  plan,  and  the  greatest  at- 
tention and  labor  to  carry  into  effect.  Before  the  Duke  was 
sent  to  Paris,  France  had  avowed  herself  ready  to  make  very 
many  sacrifices  to  put  an  end  to  the  war.  The  Duke  of  Choi- 
seul,  the  French  minister,  put  in  operation  all  the  arts  of  refine- 
ment to  lower  the  high  demands  of  the  haughty  Mr.  Pitt,  who 
always  carried  a  lofty  mind  towards  France  and  Spain.  Know- 
ing thoroughly  the  distressed  condition  of  France, — her  com- 
merce destroyed,  and  her  royal  navy  nearly  annihilated,  he  saw 
this  was  the  critical  time  to  establish  the  lasting  pre-eminence  of 


NOTICE  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  BEDFORD.  327 

Great  Britain,  before  Spain  and  France  united  in  their  con- 
templated family -compact.  He  knew  that  he  could  prescribe 
the  terms  of  peace  and  secure  to  himself  the  glory  of  it  ;  and 
Lord  Bute  and  those  immediately  about  him  knew  it  also  ;  but 
the  darling  object  of  his  Lordship  was  to  prostrate  the  political 
idol  which  the  People,  Parliament,  and  Fame,  had  set  up  ;  and 
by  thus  pulling  down  the  Aibric  of  Chatham's  glory,  they  thought 
to  put  an  end  to  his  mighty  influence  in  the  nation.  To  effect 
this  he  formed  connexions  with  those  who  hated  and  envied 
the  great  man.  The  first  movement  was  to  pull  from  under 
him  such  a  substantial  prop  as  the  Right  Hon.  H.  B.  Legge, 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer.  This  dismissal  was  pointedly 
reprehended  by  Junius. 

Now,  if  Junius  was  Loi-d  Chatham,  we  see  ample  reason, 
not  only  for  his  contempt,  but  utter  antij^athy,  towards  the  richest 
Peer  in  England.  We  cannot  otlierwise  account  for  his  dwel- 
ling, with  hyena-like  pleasure,  on  the  rotten  part  of  the  Duke 
of  Bedford's  character.  He  says  of  him,  "  Your  patrons  want- 
ed an  ambassador  who  would  submit  to  make  concessions, 
without  daring  to  insist  upon  any  honorable  conditions  for  his 
Sovereign.  Their  business  required  a  man,  who  had  as  little 
feeling  for  his  own  dignity  as  for  the  welfare  of  his  country ; 
and  they  found  him  in  the  first  rank  of  nobility.  Belleish, 
Goree,  Guadaloupe,  St.  Lucia,  Martinique,  the  Fishery,  and 
the  Havanna,  are  glorious  monuments  of  your  Grace's  talents 
for  negotiation.  My  Lord,  we  are  too  well  acquainted  with 
your  pecuniary  character,  to  think  it  possible  that  so  many 
public  sacrifices  should  have  been  made  without  some  private 
compensation.  Your  conduct  carries  with  it  an  internal  evi- 
dence beyond  all  the  legal  proofs  of  a  court  of  justice." 

Still  this  branch  of  the  noble  House  of  Russell  had  great  in- 
fluence, by  means  of  his  riches  and  numerous  dependents, 
passing  down  through  rills  and  runnels,  even  to  gutters  ;  in  so 
much  that  Lord  Chatham,  when  about  to  form  a  new  adminis- 
tration in  1766,  deemed  it  politic  to  engage  the  interest  of  the 
Duke  of  Bedford  and  his  numerous  friends.      Lord  Ches- 


328  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

terfield  speaks  thus  of  it  to  bis  son.  "  Eight  or  nine  peo- 
ple of  some  consequence  have  resigned  their  employments; 
upon  which  Lord  Chatham  made  overtures  to  the  Duke  of 
Bedford  and  his  people,  but  they  could  by  no  means  agree; 
and  his  Grace  went  the  next  day,  full  of  wrath,  to  Woburn 
[bis  country  residence]  ;  so  that  negotiation  is  entirely  at  an 
end.  People  wait  to  see  who  Lord  Chatham  will  take  next; 
for  some  he  must  have ;  even  he  cannot  be  alone  contra  mun- 
dum"  But  the  trutii  must  be  told,  "  That  superiority  of  mind, 
and  perhaps  the  gout,  which  had  denied  him  the  usual  habits 
of  intercourse  with  the  world,  gave  an  air  of  austerity  to  his 
manners,  and  precluded  the  policy  of  a  convenient  condescen- 
sion to  the  minutiag  of  politeness,  and  fascinating  powers  of  ad- 
dress, when  most  needed."  * 

That  (he  general  character  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford  was 
very  exceptionable  we  believe  ;  but  the  particular  instances  of 
it  we  venture  not  to  record  at  this  distance  of  time  and  space. 
In  the  height  of  religious  or  political  controversy,  what  prudent 
man  will  venture  to  fix  the  character  of  any  leader  ?  We  may 
relate  what  was  said,  and  leave  it  to  truth  and  time.  The 
caustic  Junius  treats  with  ridicule  his  Grace  the  Duke  of 
Grafton  ;  but  he  speaks  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford  with  horror, 
and  exclaims,  "  Whither  shall  this  unhappy  old  man  retire  ? 
Can  he  remain  in  the  metropolis,  where  his  life  has  been  so 
often  threatened,  and  his  palace  so  often  attacked?  If  he  re- 
turns to  Woburn,  scorn  and  mockery  await  him.  He  must 
create  a  solitude  round  his  estate,  if  he  would  avoid  the  face 
of  reproach  and  derision.  At  Plymouth  his  destruction  would 
be  more  than  probable  ;  at  Exeter,  inevitable.  No  honest 
Englishman  will  ever  forget  his  attachment,  nor  any  honest 
Scotchman  forgive  his  treachery,  to  Lord  Bute.  At  every 
town  he  enters,  he  must  change  his  liveries  and  his  name. 
Whichever  way  he  flies,  the  hue  and  cry  of  the  country  pur- 
sues him.  As  well  might  Verres  return  to  Sicily."  What  a 
portrait ! 

*  Anecdotes  of  the  Life  of  Chatham. 


NOTICE  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  BEDFORD.       329 

This  was  a  critical  period  in  the  history  of  George  the 
Third,  and  of  the  great  Statesman  whom  we  have  presumed  to 
celebrate.  Lord  Chatham's  ill  health,  aside  from  mere  gout, 
affected  his  lofty  spirit.  He  had  now  attained  the  critical 
place  in  the  ladder  of  human  life,  and  at  this  climacterical 
round  of  it  he  suffered  like  a  common  man  ;  yet  he  after- 
wards blazed  out  brighter  than  ev^er  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
Three  years  after  this  period,  Junius  addressed  that  very  se- 
vere letter  to  his  Grace  of  Bedford,  from  which  we  have 
made  some  extracts.  Woodfall  was  afraid  to  publish  it;  but 
was  encouraged  to  it  by  a  private  letter  from  Junius  in  these 
words.  "  As  to  you,  it  is  clearly  my  opinion  that  you  have 
nothing  to  fear  from  the  Duke  of  Bedford.  I  reserve  some 
things  to  awe  him,  in  case  he  should  think  of  bringing  you  be- 
fore the  House  of  Lords.  I  am  sure  1  can  threaten  him  pri- 
vately with  such  a  storm  as  would  make  him  tremble  even  in 
his  grave  !  " 

Now,  what  man,  what  subject  can  be  named,  that  could  pos- 
sibly have  excited  in  Lord  Chatham  more  resentment  and  dis- 
gust, than  this  same  Duke  of  Bedford  ? 

Li  the  peace  he  made,  he  gave  up  those  West-India  islands 
enumerated  in  the  bitter  epistle  already  noticed, — the  valuable 
fruits  of  Lord  Chatham's  labors  and  success.  We  therefore  per- 
ceive ample  reason  for  keen,  and,  one  would  think,  lasting  resent- 
ment towards  the  Duke  ;  insomuch  that  we  cannot  readily  be- 
lieve, that  a  very  able,  ambitious,  renowned,  and  eloquent  man, 
situated  and  circumstanced  as  Earl  Chatham  really  was,  would 
go  down  quietly  to  the  grave  without  leaving  behind  some  written 
memorial  of  those  bereavements  and  the  cause  of  them,  with- 
out giving  some  vent  to  his  indignant  feelings  through  his  pen, 
and  that  too  in  the  severe  and  acrimonious  style  of  the  Let- 
ter from  which  we  have  made  extracts,  in  order  to  brand 
the  man,  who,  by  "  a  single  stroke  of  his  pen,"  assigned  to 
the  French  and  Spaniards  conquests  which  had  cost  the  minis- 
ter and  the  nation  such  unparalleled  exertions  to  achieve. 
There  is  yet  anotlier,  and  to  us  mortifying  view  of  the  subject. 
42 


330  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

Lord  Chatham  could  not  but  have  known  the  reputation,  nay, 
more,  the  character  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford.  We  say  the 
character,  that  which  marks  the  man,  and  never  fails  to  show 
itself  in  spite  of  hypocrisy,  be  his  reputation  whatever  it  may. 
We  overrate  the  character  of  Chatham,  if  he  was  not  a  per- 
sonage who  looked  through  reputation,  or  what  others  thought, 
to  those  indelible  marks  which  stamp  the  man  good,  great,  and 
generous,  or  mean,  sordid,  and  vicious.  The  vulgar  are  warp- 
ed by  name,  by  title,  by  vast  riches,  and  their  splendid  concomi- 
tants ;  but  the  deep  impress  of  the  Duke's  personal  character 
must  have  been  fixed  in  the  mind  of  our  great  statesman  even  at 
the  time  when  impaired  health  and  gloomy  ideas  pressed  heavily 
upon  it  at  Bath.  It  appears  therefore  strange,  passing  strange, 
that  Lord  Chatham  could  ever,  for  a  moment,  have  felt  the 
least  wish  to  associate  himself  in  office  with  any  Peer,  how- 
ever high  in  rank  or  abounding  in  riches,  with  such  a  cast  of 
character  as  that  which  common  fame  attributed  to  John  Rus- 
sell, Duke  0/ BEDFORD.  How  could  a  man  of  Chatham's  well 
known  character, — integrity  itself  personified, — endure  to  be 
yoked  to  the  same  car  with-  one  staggering  through  the  world 
under  such  a  weight  of  odium  as  that  laid  upon  the  Duke  of 
Bedford  ;  a  man  base  enough,  fool  enough,  to  treat  his  Sove- 
reign in  a  worse  manner  than  any  genuine  nobleman  would  in- 
dulge towards  an  equal  ? 

We  can  account  for  Lord  Chatham's  overture  to  the  Duke  of 
Bedford,  only  by  supposing  that  he  hoped  to  recover  sufficient 
health  to  enable  him  shortly  to  exert  himself  once  more  in  the 
cause  he  had  long  espoused.  Otherwise  we  should  be  puzzled 
to  explain  how  he  should  risk  roiling  the  fountain-head,  by 
placing  near  it  such  a  foul  character  ;  a  de  '  that  would  have 
justified  Sir  Philip  Francis  in  saying  of  Lord  Chatham,  whom  he 
almost  idolized,  that  he  was  "  a  great,  illustrious, /aw/^y  human 
being."  But  as  it  stood  without  explanation,  it  doubtless  opened 
a  wide  avenue  for  objurgation.  His  admiring  biographer  says, 
this  was  the  least  glorious  period  of  his  life.  Now  how  hap- 
pened it,  that  this  very  conspicuous  and  influential  character 


NOTICE  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  GRAFTON.        33 1 

escaped  the  lash  of  JuNiT's,  seeing  his  Lordship's  bare  back 
lay  so  fair  for  it  ?  How  came  the  great  file-leader  of  whig- 
gism  to  escape,  in  this  instance,  the  animadversion  of  the  keen 
censor  of  the  age,  the  fastidious  arhiter  niorum,  the  eagle-eyed 
Junius? — of  him,  who  at  his  outset  denounced  Mr.  Pitt  and 
Lord  Camden,  a>  risking  the  integrity  of  the  British  empire 
merely  to  destroy  George  Grenville  as  a  minister  ?  He,  who 
can  explain  this  silence,  and  that  denunciation  from  the  same 
pen,  upon  any  other  hypothesis  than  our  own,  merits  from  the 
author  the  homage  due  to  a  Magnus  Apollo. 

The  Duke  of  Grafton 

Having  called  forth  a  treble  portion  of  the  vituperation  of 
Junius,  we  are  now  to  search  out  the  hidden  cause  of  it. 

We  understand  clearly,  why  the  Earl  of  Chatham  hated 
the  Duke  of  Bedford,  who  did  all  in  his  power  to  demolish 
the  triumphal  arch  which  Fame  had  erected  to  the  honor  of 
that  great  man  ;  but  we  do  not  see  so  distinctly  how  Junius, 
upon  our  hypothesis,  had  equal  reason  for  detesting  tlie  Duke 
of  Grafton  as  a  politician.  He  ajipears  rather  a  weak  and 
trifling  man,  than  a  very  wicked  or  dangerous  one ;  hardly 
worth  the  powder  and  shot  expended  upon  him.  Or  was  it  to 
show  that  a  mere  effigy  of  a  Prime  IMinister  was  wanted  by  a 
Sovereign  determined  to  be  his  own  ? 

Junius,  under  the  signature  of  Atticus,  October  19,  1768, 
says,  "  When  the  Dulce  of  Grafton  first  entered  into  office,  it 
was  the  fashion  of  the  times  to  suppose  that  young  men  might 
have  wisdom  without  experience.  They  thought  so  themselves, 
and  the  most  important  affairs  of  this  country  were  committed 
to  the  first  trial  of  their  abilities.  His  Grace  had  honorably 
fleshed  his  maiden  sword  in  the  field  of  opposition,  and  had 
gone  through  all  the  discipline  of  the  minority  with  credit. 
He  dined  at  Wild  man's,  railed  at  favorites,  looked  up  to  Lord 
Chatham  with  astonishment,  and  was  the  declared  advocate  of 
Mr.  Wilkes.     It  afterwards  pleased  his  Grace  to  enter  into  ad- 


332  CONCERNENG  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

ministration  with  his  friend  Lord  Rockingham,  and,  in  a  very- 
little  time,  it  pleased  his  Grace  to  abandon  Mm.  He  then  ac- 
cepted the  Treasury  upon  terms  which  Lord  Temple  had  dis- 
dained. For  a  short  time,  his  submission  to  Lord  Chatham 
was  unlimited.  He  could  not  answer  a  letter  without  Lord 
Chatham's  permission.  I  presume  he  was  then  learning  his 
trade,  for  he  soon  set  up  for  himself.  Until  he  declared  him- 
self minister,  his  character  had  been  but  little  understood. 
From  that  moment  a  system  of  conduct,  directed  by  passion 
and  caprice,  not  only  reminds  us  that  he  is  a  young  man,  but 
a  young  man  without  solidity  of  judgment.  One  day  he  de- 
sponds and  threatens  to  resign.  The  next,  he  finds  his  blood 
heated,  and  swears  to  his  friends  he  is  determined  to  go  on. 
In  his  public  measures  we  have  seen  no  proof  either  of  ability 
or  consistency.  The  stamp  act  had  been  repealed  (no  matter 
how  unadvisedly)  under  the  preceding  administration.  The 
colonies  had  reason  to  triumph,  and  were  returning  to  good 
humor.  The  point  was  decided,  when  this  young  man  thought 
proper  to  revive  it.  [Why  not  say  the  King  thought  proper 
to  revive  it,  and  the  young  Duke  was  disposed  to  gratify  him 
in  that  and  in  every  thing  else  ?]  Without  either  plan  or  ne- 
cessity, he  adopts  the  spirit  of  Mr.  Grenville's  measures,  and 
renews  the  question  of  taxation  in  a  form  more  odious  and  less 
effectual,  than  that  of  the  law  which  had  been  repealed. 
.  "  His  standing  foremost  in  the  prosecution  of  Mr.  Wilkes,  if 
former  declarations  and  connexions  be  considered,  is  base  and 
contemptible.  The  man  whom  he  now  brands  with  treason 
and  blasphemy,  but  a  few  years  ago  was  the  Duke  of  Grafton's 
friend,  nor  is  his  identity  altered,  except  by  his  misfortunes. 
In  the  last  instance  of  his  Grace's  judgment  and  consistency, 
we  see  him,  after  trying  and  deserting  every  party,  throw  him- 
self into  the  arms  of  a  set  of  men,  whose  political  principles 
he  had  always  pretended  to  abhor." 

This  is  indeed  an  admirable  portrait  of  a  weakish,  inconsist- 
ent, ignorant,  and  presumptuous  weathercock  of  a  young  no- 
bleman, who  injudiciously  grasped  more  than  he  could  hold, 


NOTICE  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  GRAFTON.       333 

yet  was  sufficiently  respectable  as  to  rank  to  be  a  fit  and  gaudy 
tool  for  the  secret  and  irresponsible  cabinet  of  that  day  to  work 
withal.  The  same  Letter  contains  sketches  of  the  characters 
of  Lords  North,  Shelburne,  Hillsborough,  Granby,  Weymouth, 
and  Gower,  with  a  very  few  words,  not  three  lines,  and  those 
obscure,  on  poor  Lord  Chatham,  as  too  much  worn  to  the 
stump,  like  an  old  broom,  to  merit  notice..  He  intimates 
that  he  had  much  to  say  of  that  forlorn  nobleman,  but  for- 
bears, because  "  it  were  inhuman  to  persecute,  when  Provi- 
dence has  marked  out  the  example  to  mankind."  Here  the 
chalk,  from  some  cause  or  other,  possibly  the  gout,  fell  from 
the  hand  of  Junius  !  and  left  the  portrait  for  posterity  to  fin- 
ish, and — to  venerate  !  At  about  six  weeks'  interval,  he 
writes  again  under  the  signature  of  Lucius,  and  says,  "  I 
think  I  have  now  named  all  the  cabinet  but  the  Earl  of  Chat- 
ham. His  infirmities  have  forced  him  into  retirement,  where, 
I  presume,  he  is  ready  to  suffer,  with  a  sullen  submission,  eve*- 
ry  insult  and  disgrace  that  can  be  heaped  upon  a  miserable, 
decrepid,  worn-out  old  man." 

Junius,  under  his  own  proper  signature,  says  to  the  Duke 
of  Grafton,  "You  had  already  taken  your  degrees  with  credit 
in  those  schools  in  which  the  English  nobility  are  formed  to 
virtue,  when  you  were  introduced  to  Lord  Chatham's  protec- 
tion. From  Newmarket,  White's,  and  the  opposition,  he  gave 
you  to  the  world  with  an  air  of  popularity,  which  young  men 
usually  set  out  with,  and  seldom  preserve  ;  grave  and  plausible 
enough  to  be  thought  fit  for  business  ;  too  young  for  treachery  ; 
and,  in  short,  a  patriot  of  no  unpromising  expectations.  Lord 
Chatham  was  the  earliest  object  of  your  political  wonder  and  at- 
tachment, yet  you  deserted  him  upon  the  first  hopes  that  offered 
of  an  equal  share  of  power  with  Lord  Rockingham.  When  the 
Duke  of  Cumberland's  first  negotiation  failed,  and  when  the  fa- 
vorite was  pushed  to  the  last  extremity,  you  saved  him  by  joining 
with  an  administration  in  which  Lord  Chatham  had  refused  to 
engage.  Still,  however,  he  was  your  friend,  and  you  are  yet 
to  explain  to  the  world  why  you  consented  to  act  without  him ; 


834  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

or  why,  after  uniting  with  Lord  Rockingham,  you  deserted 
and  betrayed  him  also. 

"  Lord  Chatham  forined  his  last  administration  upon  prin- 
ciples which  you  certainly  concurred  in,  or  you  could  never 
have  been  placed  at  the  head  of  the  treasury.  By  deserting 
those  principles,  and  by  acting  in  direct  contradiction  to  them, 
in  which  he  foijnd  you  were  secretly  supported  in  the  closet, 
you  soon  forced  him  to  leave  you  to  yourself,  and  to  withdraw 
his  name  from  an  administration  which  had  been  formed  on 
the  credit  of  it." 

Who  could  this  Junifs  be,  who  had  such  an  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  the  mind  of  Chatham  and  the  heart  of  Grafton  ?  Was 
he  some  aerial  being,  superior  in  essence  to  ourselves,  who  was 
thus  capable  of  entering  the  minds  and  hearts  of  men,  so  as  to 
even  know  their  motives,  views,  and  expectations  ?  Or  was 
this  seemingly  niagical  power  no  other  than  that  which  springs 
from  the  operation  of  a  very  strong  mind  over  a  weak  one  ? 
Does  our  hypothesis  savour  of  a  creature  of  the  imagination 
merely,  or  has  it  a  real  prototype  ? 

Junius  says,  in  the  same-  Letter,  "  Your  Grace's  public 
conduct  as  a  minister,  is  but  the  counterpart  of  your  private 
history  ; — the  same  inconsistency,  the  same  contradictions.  In 
America  we  trace  you,  from  the  first  opposition  to  the  stamp 
act  on  principles  of  convenience,  to  Mr.  Pitt's  surrender  of  the 
right ; — then  forward  to  Lord  Rockingham's  surrender  of  the 
fact ; — then  forward  to  taxation  with  Mr.  Townshend  ;  and  in 
the  last  instance,  from  the  gentle  Conway's  undetermined  dis- 
cretion,  to   blood  and  compulsion  with  the  Duke  of  Bedford." 

Junius,  in  a  Letter  to  the  Printer,*  after  describing  the  at- 
tachments which  the  Duke  of  Grafton  had  formed,  broken  off, 
or  betrayed,  says,  that  "  he  made  himself  accessary  to  the  un- 
timely death  of  Mr.  Yorke, — 1  say  accessary,  because  he  was 
certainly  not  the  principal  actor  in  that  most  atrocious  business. 
After  all,  when  it  was  impossible  for  liim  to  add   to  his  guilti- 

*  Under  the  signature  of  Domitian. 


NOTICE  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  GRAFTON,       335 

ness,  a  panic  seizes  him  ;  he  begins  to  measure  his  expecta- 
tions by  tlie  sense  of  his  deserts ;  a  visionary  gibbet  appears 
before  his  eyes  ;  he  flies  from  his  post,  surrenders  to  another 
the  reward  due  to  his  lionorable  services,  and  leaves  his  king 
and  country  to  extricate  themselves,  if  they  can,  from  the  dic- 
tress  and  confusion  in  which  he  had  involved  them. 

"  Tiie  danger,  as  he  conceives,  being  now  pretty  well  over, 
what  plan  do  you  think  this  woithy,  resolute  young  man  pur- 
sues at  present  ?  While  he  was  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury, 
it  is  well  known  (and  I  speak  from  knowledge  when  I  assert) 
that  he  never  treated  Lord  North  even  with  the  common  ci- 
vility due  to  his  clerk.  1  appeal  to  Lord  North  himself,  and 
to  every  clerk  in  the  treasury  (particularly  to  Grey  Cooper), 
whether  it  was  not  known  to  be  a  difficult  matter  for  the  Chan- 
cellor of  the  Exchequer  to  obtain  an  audience  even  of  Mr. 
Thomas  Bradshaw.  Would  you  beheve  it  possible.  Sir,  that, 
after  these  facts,  this  very  Duke  of  Grafton  can  be  so  de- 
graded, so  lost  to  every  sensation  of  pride,  of  dignity,  and  de- 
corum, as  to  be  a  suppliant  beggar  for  employment  to  this  very 
Lord  North  ?  Yet  so  it  is  ;  and  if  I  were  to  tell  you  with 
what  circumstances  of  humiliation  he  accompanies  his  suit  to 
that  minister,  the  narrative  would  be  nauseous  and  fulsome. 
He  is  so  very  impatient  to  be  First  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  that 
Lord  North  can  hardly  keep  the  fawning  creature  from  under 
his  feet.  Now,  Sir,  let  any  man  living,  I  care  not  whether 
friend  or  foe,  review  this  summary  of  his  life,  and  tell  us  in 
what  instance  he  has  discovered  a  single  ray  of  wisdom,  solidi- 
ty, or  judgment. 

"  As  to  the  other  test  of  his  abilities,  I  mean  his  talent  for 
talking  in  public,  I  can  speak  with  greater  precision,  for  I 
have  often  had  the  honor  of  hearing  him.  With  a  very  solemn 
and  plausible  delivery,  he  has  a  set  of  thoughts,  or  rather  of 
words  resembling  thoughts,  which  may  be  applied  indifferently, 
and  with  equal  success  to  all  possible  subjects.  There  is  this 
singular  advantage  in  his  Grace's  method  of  discourse,  that,  if 
it  were  once  admitted  that  he  spoke  well  upon   any  one  given 


336  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

topic,  it  would  inevitably  follow,  that  he  was  qualified  to  deliver 
himself  happily  upon  every  subject  whatever.  He  would  be  ip- 
so  facto  an  universal  orator.  Accept  of  the  following  specimen 
of  his  Grace's  eloquence,  and  I  promise  you,  you  will  be  as 
well  able  to  judge  of  his  oratorial  powers,  as  if  you  had  heard 
him  a  thousand  times. 

"  '  My  Lords, — When  I   came  into  the   House  this  day,  I 
protest  I  did  not  think  it  possible, — indeed  I  had  formed  in  my 
own  breast  a  resolution   to  the   contrary, — but,  my  Lords,  I 
really  thought  it  impossible,    that  I  should   be  compelled  to 
trouble  your  Lordships  with  my  poor  thoughts  upon  the  ques- 
tion before  your  Lordships.     I  never   do   presume  to  trouble 
your  Lordships  at  any  time  without  feeling  a  pain,  an  internal 
regret, — a  degree  of  uneasiness  which,  I  can  with  truth  assure 
your  Lordships   (and  I  flatter  myself  that  I  shall  find   credit 
with  every  noble  Lord  who   hears  me),  it  is  not  easy  for  me 
to  have  the  honor  of  describing  to  your  Lordships.    My  Lords, 
I  am  called  upon,   as  I  humbly  conceive,  and  I  appeal  boldly, 
not  only  to  the  candor  of  noble  Lords,  but  to  your  Lordships' 
severer  judgment,   whether  I  am  not  compelled  to  declare  my 
sentiments,  as  explicitly  as   I  now  do,   upon  the  motion  upon 
your  Lordships'   table.     Upon  this  ground,  ray  Lords,  I  meet 
the  noble   Lord   without  fear,   though  I  respect  his  superior 
abilities,  and  I  pledge  myself  to  your  Lordships  for  the  truth  of 
what  I  assert.     Otherwise,   my  Lords,  if  facts   were   not  as  I 
have  stated  them,   where   will  your  Lordships  draw  the  liue } 
My  Lords,  I  am  really  astonished, — yet  indeed,  my  Lords,  I 
ought  not  to  be  astonished.     The  question  has  been  handled 
with   so  much  ability  by  other  noble  Lords,  that  1  shall  con- 
tent w^^self  with  this   simple,    unadorned    declaration   of  my 
opinion.     Yet  I  could  quote  cases,  my  Lords,  which   I   acci- 
dentally met  with  this   morning   in   the  course  of  my  reading, 
-  which,  I  doubt  not,  would  convince  your  Lordships,  if  convic- 
tion were  the  question.    But  I  fear  I  have  troubled  your  Lord- 
ships too  long  ;  1  shall  therefore  return  to  the  leading   propo- 
sition, which  1  had  the  honor  of  setting  out  with,  and  move  for 
an  immediate  adjournment.^  " 


NOTICE  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  GRAFTON.        337 

Should  it  be  sns?  ected,  that  this  is  not  a  correct  likeness, 
but  a  caricature  of  the  noble  Duke,  it  must  still  be  allowed  that 
it  is  not  a  vulgar  sketch.  Leo  cognoscitur  pede.  The  same 
personage  says,  in  all  sobriety,  in  his  first  and  masterly  Letter, 
"  The  finances  of  a  nation,  sinking  under  its.  debts  and  ex- 
penses, are  committed  to  a  young  nobleman  already  ruined  by 
play.  Introduced  to  act  under  the  auspices  of  Loid  Chatham, 
and  left  at  the  head  of  affairs  by  that  nobleman's  retreat,  he 
became  minister  by  accident;  but,  deserting  the  principles  and 
professions  which  gave  him  a  moment's  popularity,  we  see 
him,  from  every  honorable  engagement  to  the  public,  an  apos- 
tate by  design." 

In  a  note  to  this  text,  Junius  says,  "  The  Duke  of  Grafton 
took  the  oflice  of  secretary  of  state  with  an  engagement  to  sup- 
port the  Marquis  of  Rockingham's  administration.  He  re- 
signed, however,  in  a  little  time,  under  pretence  that  he  could 
not  act  without  Lord  Chatham,  nor  bear  to  see  Mr.  Wilkes 
♦  abandoned  ;  but  that,  under  Lord  Chatham,  he  would  act  in 
any  office.  This  was  the  signal  of  Lord  Rockingham's  dis- 
mission. When  Lord  Chatham  came  in,  the  Duke  got  pos- 
session of  the  treasury.  Reader,"  says  Junius,  "  mark  the 
consequence  ! "  He  snapped  his  finger  in  defiance  of  the 
great  statesman  and  his  quondam  patron,  thus  evincing,  that 
he  was  a  minister  exactly  fitted  for  a  King,  who  may  be  desig- 
nated maximus  in  minimis. 

Lord  Chatham,  in  a  speech  delivered  March  2,  1770,  ridi- 
culed the  idea  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton's  having  been  minister, 
and  laughed  at  his  presumption  in  thinking  so.  He  spoke  of 
"  the  secret  influence  of  an  invisible  power  ;  of  a  favorite  (Bute), 
whose  pernicious  counsels  had  occasioned  all  the  present  un- 
happiness  and  disturbances  in  the  nation,  and  who,  notwith- 
standing  he  was  abroad,*   was  at  this   moment  as  potent  as 

*  AUhoufih  Lord  Bute  went  to  France  with  a  view  to  lessen  the 
clamor  against  him,  his  influence  was  little  or  not  at  all  diminished  by 
his  abBcnce.    The  nation  felt  it  with  disgust. 

43 


338  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

ever ; — that  Mazarine  absent  was  Mazarine  still.  He  had 
ruined  every  plan  for  the  public  good,  and  betrayed  every  man 
who  had  taken  a  responsible  office.  There  wr.s  no  safely,  no 
security  against  his  power  and  malignity.  The  transaction  of 
the  late  peace  was  a  proof  of  his  influence  ; — that  measure  was 
his.  He  himself  had  been  duped  ;  he  confessed  it  with  sor- 
row ;  he  had  been  duped  when  he  least  expected  treachery, 
at  a  time  when  the  prospect  was  fair,  and  when  the  appear- 
ances of  confidence  were  strong; — in  particular,  at  the  time 
when  he  was  taken  ill,  and  obliged  to  go  to  Bath  for  a  short 
week  ; — he  had,  before  he  set  out,  formed,  with  great  pains, 
attention,  and  deliberation,  schemes  highly  interesting  and  of 
the  utmost  importance  to  this  country  ; — schemes,  which  had 
been  approved  in  council,  and  to  which  the  King  himself  had 
given  his  consent.  But  when  he  returned,  he  found  that  his 
plans  had  all  vanished  into  thin  air. 

"  Raising  his  voice,  he  declared  in  a  dignified  tone,  '  that  this 
country  was  sold  at  the  late  peace  ;  that  ive  were  sold  by  the 
Court  of  Turin  to  the  Court  of  France.  [That  Court  being 
ihe  go-between  in  the  preliminary  articles  of  the  peace  between 
France  and  England.]  When  I  was  earnestly  called  upon 
for  the  public  service,  I  came  from  Somersetshire  with  wings 
of  zeal.  I  consented  to  preserve  a  peace  which  I  abominated  ; 
— a  peace  I  would  not  make,  but  would  preserve  when  made. 
I  undertook  to  support  a  government  by  law,  but  to  shield 
no  man  from  public  justice.  These  terms  were  accepted, 
I  thought  with  sincerity  accepted.  I  own  I  was  credulous  ; 
I  was  duped,  I  was  deceived  ;  for  I  soon  found  that  there  was 
no  ORIGINAL  administration  to  be  suffered  in  this  country.  The 
same  secret  influence  still  prevailed,  which  had  put  an  end  to 
all  the  successive  administrations  as  soon  as  they  opposed,  or 
declined  to  act  under  it.^ 

"  Here  the  Duke  of  Grafton  jumped  up  and  exclaimed,  '  / 
rise  to  defend  the  King  !  The  words  which  have  been  spoken 
are  only  the  effects  of  a  distempered  mind,  brooding  over  its 
own  discontent.' 


NOTICE  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  GRAFTON.       339 

"To  which  Lord  Chatham  calmly  replied,  ^  I  rise  neither  to 
deny,  to  retract,  nor  to  explain  away  the  words  I  have  spoken.^ 
He  then  spoke  of  the  obstacles  and  difficulties  which  attended 
every  great  and  public  measure,  which,  he  said,  were  suggest- 
ed, nourished,  and  supported  by  that  secret  influence  he  had 
mentioned,  first  by  secret  treachery,  then  by  official  influence, 
and  afterwards  in  public  councils.  '  A  long  train  of  these 
practices,'  said  he,  '  has  at  length  unwillingly  convinced  me, 
that  there  is  something  behind  the  Throne  greater  than  the 
King  himself.  As  to  the  noble  Duke,  there  was  in  his  con- 
duct, from  the  time  of  my  being  taken  ill,  a  gradual  deviation 
from  every  thing  that  had  been  settled  and  agreed  to  by  his 
Grace,  both  as  to  measures  and  to  men,  till  at  last  there  were 
not  left  two  planks  together  of  the  ship  which  had  been  origi- 
nally launched.'  "  * 

]Mr.  Nichols,  whose  father  was  Archiater  to  George  the 
Second,  says,  "  that,  from  the  commencement  of  the  reign  of 
George  the  Third,  a  struggle  had  existed  between  the  King's 
personal  wishes  and  the  opinions  of  his  ostensible  ministers  ; 
that  the  two  first  wishes,  which  he  seems  to  have  entertained, 
were  to  break  the  power  of  the  Pelham  faction,  and  to  restore 
peace ;  that  the  instrument  which  he  employed  to  effec- 
tuate his  objects  was  unfortunately  chosen  ;  that  the  Earl  of  Bute 
was  not  qualified  to  be  a  minister ; "  and  he  adds,  "  that  from 
the  time  of  his  removal  we  may  date  the  establishment  of  the 
double  cabinet,  that  is,  secret  advisers,  and  ostensible  ministers." 
He  says  further,  "  that  the  King  dismissed  George  Grenville 
because  he  found  him  not  sufficiently  subservient  to  his  views, 
and  Lord  Rockingham  because  he  repealed  the  stamp  act ; 
and  that  when  the  Duke  of  Grafton  was  appointed  minister, 
it  was  understood  that  he  was  to  act  under  the  guidance  of 
the  Earl  of  Chatham.  But  soon  after  the  estabhshment  of 
this  ministry,  and  while  Lord  Chatham  was  sick  and  absent 
from  council,  the  King  contrived  to  have  the  question  of  taxing 

*  From  the  London  Museum  and  Almon's  Anecdotes  of  Lord  Chat- 
ham. 


340      CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

the  American  colonies  revived  ;  and,  by  playing  man  against 
man  and  faction  against  faction,  he  at  length  obtained  his 
wishes  ;  and  the  American  colonies  found  themselves  reduced 
to  the  alternative  of  unconditional  submission,  or  explicit  and 
avowed  resistance."  Mr.  Nichols  adds,  "  They  chose  the  lat- 
ter ;  "  and  "  while  the  King  was  pursuing  this  object  of 
reviving  the  dispute  with  America,  he  seems  to  have  employed 
that  maxim  of  the  politician,  Divide  et  impera,  with  much  dex- 
terity. The  late  Earl  of  Shelburne  told  a  friend  of  mine," 
says  Mr.  Nichols,  "  that  the  King  possessed  one  art  beyond 
any  man  he  had  ever  known  ;  for  that,  by  the  familiarity  of 
his  intercourse,  he  obtained  your  confidence,  procured  from 
you  your  opinion  of  different  public  characters,  and  then  avail- 
ed himself  of  this  knowledge  to  sow  dissension." 

How  far  this  corresponds  vvith  a  passage  in  a  private  letter 
from  John  Wilkes  to  Junius,  of  September  12,  1771,  is  left 
to  the  feelings  and  judgment  of  each  reader  ;  viz.  "  Lord 
Chatham  said  to  me  ten  years  ago,  ******  is  the  falsest 
hypocrite  in  Europe.  I  must  hate  the  man  as  much  as  even 
Junius  can,  for  through  this  whole  reign  almost  it  has  been 
*********  versus  Wilkes.  This  conduct  will  probably 
make  it  Wilkes  versus  ********  *."  -j- 

"  It  is  understood,"  says  Mr.  Heron,  "  that  if  the  Duke  of 
Grafton  had  remained  faithful  to  Lord  Chatham,  had  scorned 
all  political  association  equally  with  the  Bedford  party  as  with 
those  who  called  themselves  the  King's  friends,"  the  combi- 
nation of  the  Pitt  and  Grenville  with  the  JVewcastle  and  Rock- 
ingham Whigs,  had  been,  ere  that  time,  triumphant ;  and  the 
King  would  have  been  obliged  to  resign  the  reigns  of  his  gov- 
ernment into  their  hands,   upon  their   own  conditions.     The 

f  I  have  seen  these  blanks  filled  up  in  print ;  but  do  not  choose  to 
reprint  g"wess  work,  especially  of  a  paragraph  written  by  a  man  whose 
folly  led  him  to  set  up  a  printing-press  in  his  own  house  to  print  all  the 
proceedings  of  the  administration  against  him,  price  one  guinea!  and 
who,  contrary  to  the  advice  of  his  best  fnienda,  reprinted  all  the  forty- 
Jive  numbers  of  his  JVorth  Briton, 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  AMHERST.  341 

prevention  of  this  was  ihe  great  crime  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  Whigs.  .  And  Mr.  Heron  adds,  "  This  was 
the  CAUSE  of  JuNius's  ABHORRENCE  of  kini.^^ — [NoTE  io  his 
Fifty-Jifth  Letter. 


Lord  Amherst 

Is  the  last  personage  we  shall  cite  to  prove  the  consimilarity 
in  opinion  between  Junius  and  Lord  Chatham,  respecting  the 
characters  and  conduct  of  men. 

"  Jeffery  Amhersi,  the  descendant  of  an  old  and  most  re- 
spectable f^imiiy  iu  the  county  of  Kent,  was  born  on  the  29th 
of  January,  1717.  At  a  very  early  age,  he  devoted  himself 
to  the  profession  of  arms.  He  received  an  ensign's  commis- 
sion in  the  guards  when  not  more  tlian  fourteen  years  old. 
At  the  age  of  twemty-four  he  was  made  aid-de-camp  to  General 
Ligonier,  and  in  that  capacity  was  present  at  the  battles  of 
Dettingen,  Fontenoy,  and  Rocoux.  After  this  he  was  ad- 
mitted upon  the  staff  of  the  Duke  of  Cumberland,  and  was 
engaged  in  the  fatal  battles  of  Lafeld  and  Hastenbeck.  In 
the  year  1756,  he  was  appointed  to  command  the  fifteenth 
regiment  of  foot,-  and  in  two  years  more  obtained  the  rank  of 
major-general.  Mr.  Pitt,  ever  attentive  to  the  character  of  the 
officers  he  employed,  saw  that  the  qualities  of  General  Am- 
herst rendered  him  a  proper  person  to  connnand  the  army  in 
JVorth  America.  He  was  accordingly  appointed,  and  the  bril- 
liant operations  of  the  campaign  amply  confinued  the  high 
opinion  entertained  of  him  by  Mr.  Pitt.  General  Amherst, 
although  a  firm  disciplinarian,  was  ever  the  soldicr^s  friend. 
He  was  a  man  of  strict  economy,  of  a  collected  and  temperate 
mind,  and  in  the  whole  of  his  conduct  appears  to  have  been 
animated  by  a  just  sense  of  what  was  due  to  his  country."  * 

*  History  of  the  Right  Hon.  Willinm  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham,  by  the 
Rev.  Francis  Thackeray,  Vol.  I.  Sir  Jeffery  Amherst  was  tlie  most 
popular  military  officer  ever  sent  from  Britain  into  these  colonies.    I 


342  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

Mr.  Pitt,  in  a  letter  to  General  Amherst,  of  October  24, 
1760,  says,  "  I  cannot  sufficiently. express  to  you  the  satis- 
faction of  his  Majesty  on  the  further  successes  of  his  a/ms  un- 
der your  command  ;  "  and  closes  with  saying,  "  I  cannot 
conclude  without  adding  my  most  hearty  congratulations  on 
the  great  honor  you  have  acquired,  and  assuring  you  of  the 
sincere  part  I  shall  take  in  every  thing  that  can  contribute  to 
the  increase  thereof."  And  in  a  subsequent  letter  he  says, 
"  I  have  the  further  pleasure  to  acquaint  you,  that  all  ranks 
and  degrees  of  people  here  have  unanimously  testified  their 
sense  of  the  many  great  services  you  have  rendered  your  King 
and  country."  Mr.  Pitt  was  always  very  frugal  in  bestowing 
high  praises  upon  officers  in  his  service. 

The  historian  just  quoted,*  who  is  remarkably  cautious  of 
imputing  blame  to  men  in  very  high  stations,  says,  that  "  the 
infirmities  of  Lord  Chatham  [in  1768]  still  prevented  him 
from  emerging  from  retirement,  and  compelled  him  to  submit, 
in  sullen  submission,  to  many  severe  outrages  upon  his  feelings 
and  his  friendships.^^  Among  these  he  mentions  an  event 
"  which  was,"  he  says,  "  certainly  calculated  to  wound  the 
high  spirit  of  Lord  Chatham.  As  a  reward  for  the  important 
services  performed  by  General  Amherst, — [nothing  less  than  the 
reduction  of  Montreal  and  all  Canada  ;  or,  in  a  word,  wresting 
from  the  hands  of  France  the  whole  of  her  power  in  JVorth 
America;^  which  services  appeared  still  greater  when  contrast- 
ed with  the  untoward  events  under  General  Braddock,  Lord 
Loudon,  and  General  Abercrombie  ; — for  these  brilliant  deeds, 
General  Amherst  was  appointed  Governor  of  Virginia^  with 
the  privilege   of  residing  in  England,   while  his   Lieutenant 

well  remember  when  the  most  frequent  signs  hung  out  at  the  inns, 
taverns,  and  smaller  houses  of  entertainment  in  America,  were  por- 
traits of  the  Right  Hon.  William  Pitt,  the  King  of  Prussia,  and 
General  Jimherst.  One  of  General  Wolfe  remains  in  its  original  place, 
at  this  day,  in  Nevvburyport,  while  the  bust  of  William  Pitt,  presented 
by  Dr.  Franklin,  in  the  year  1770,  adorns  the  spacious  Library  of 
the  University  of  Cambridge. 
*  Thackeray. 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  AMHERST.  343 

dwelt  in  the  '  ancient  dominion.'  Mr.  Pitt  had  communi- 
cated these  gracious  marks  of  his  sovereign's  favor  to  the 
Genera],  who,  during  several  years,  had  enjoyed  them  with- 
out dispute.  But  disturhances,"  says  the  historian,  "  had 
since  arisen  in  America ;  and  it  was  deemed  necessary  by 
Lord  Hillsborough,  the  minister  who  had  been  recently  made 
for  the  new  office  of  Secretary  for  the  Colonies,  that  there 
should  be  a  resident  Governor  in  Virginia.  It  might  be  sup- 
posed, that  one,  so  honorable  and  so  disinterested  as  Sir  Jeffery 
Amherst  had  proved  himself  to  be,  would  not  oppose  his  own 
accommodation  to  the  welfare  of  his  country,  but  would  consent 
to  waive  his  claim  of  non-residence,  and  either  repair  to  the 
government,  or,  upon  a  just  compensation,  relinquish  it  to 
another.  Such  a  proposition  was  accordingly  made  to  him  by 
the  ministry  [the  Duke  of  Grafton's,]  and  at  first  he  appeared 
to  acquiesce  in  the  propriety  of  the  measure,  [because  he 
thought  it  might  be  for  the  good  of  the  country.]  Unfortu- 
nately," says  the  historian,  "  he  subsequently  learned,  that,  he- 
fore  he  himself  had  been  consulted,  his  government  had  been 
promised  to  Lord  Botetourt.  Indignant  at  such  treatment, 
he  demanded  an  audience  of  his  Majesty,  and  tendered  the 
resignation  of  his  regiments." 

"  I  have  already  expressed  my  astonishment,"  says  Mr. 
Thackeray,  "  that  Lord  Chatham  should  so  long  have  con- 
sented to  form  a  part,  even  nominally,  of  an  administration, 
whose  sentiments  and  proceedings  were  so  opposite  to  his 
own." — "  Whatever  were  heretofore  his  motives  for  remaining 
in  office,  the  recent  conduct  of  the  ministry  was  so  gross  an 
outrage  upon  his  feelings,  both  as  it  regarded  his  public  meas- 
ures and  his  private  friendships,  that  he  now  felt  himself  com- 
pelled to  resign."  This  had  a  special  reference  to  the 
ill  treatment  of  General  Amherst.  Did  Lord  Chatham  sit 
quietly  under  this  gross  outrage  of  his  feelings  9 — If  he  did, 
Junius  did  not. 

In  August,  17G8,  a  letter  appeared  in  the  Public  Advertiser, 
under  the    signature  of  Valerius,  who,  Mr.  Woodfall   the 


344  concerning;junius  and  his  letters. 

younger  assures  us,  was  Junius  himself.  The  writer  sav", 
"  Amidst  the  general  indignation  which  has  heen  excited  by 
the  marked  affront  lately  )out  upon  Sir  Jeffery  Amherst,  it  is 
odd  to  find  people  puzzling  themselves  about  the  motives 
which  have  actuated  administration  in  this  extraordinary  pro- 
cedure. Nothing  is  more  short  and  easy,  than  the  solution  of 
this  affected  difficuhy.  They  were  ordered  to  act  in  this  man- 
ner.  [By  the  boyish  Duke  of  Grafton  ? — No, — by  his  master.'] 

"The  public  knows,  and  can  know,  no  other  reason.  The 
ministry  know,  and  desire  to  know,  no  other  reason.  They 
have  not  the  slightest  quarrel  with  Sir  Jeffery  Amherst.  They 
have  not  the  most  trivial  regard  for  Lord  Botetourt.  Some 
of  them  are  known  even  to  hate  his  Lordship  ;  the  rest  are 
scarcely  acquainted  with  him  ;  but  they  have  received  the  or- 
der, and  that  is  enough  for  them.  Their  whole  political  sys- 
tem is  wrapped  up  in  one  short  maxim, — 

"  My  author  and  disposer  I  what  tliou  bidst 
Unargued  I  ol)ey  !  "  * 

Leaving  Valerius,  alias  Junius,  for  a  moment,  let  us  say 
a  few  words  on  the  government  of  f^irginia. 

The  original  idea  appears  to  have  been  that  of  a  Prefect  or 
Governor-General  of  the  Colonies  ;  for  Virginia  was  the 
original  name  of  an  immense  region,  including  nearly  all  the 
British  claims  in  America.  Whether  Virginia,  so  called  by 
the  English  in  honor  of  their  Virgin  Queen,  was  a  favorite  ter- 
ritory in  the  eyes  of  Lord  Chatham,  or  whether  he  had  any 
particular  views  in  wishing  to  place  his  favorite  General  there, 
we  are  not  prepared  to  say  ;  and  we  only  guess,  that  he  may 
have  wished  to  balance  the  colonial,  democratical  influence  be- 
tween New  England  and  Virginia,  should  ever  one  or  the  oth- 
er incline  to  independency.  The  first  settlers  of  Virginia  ap- 
pear to  have  brought  over  with  them  as  much  of  the  Eng- 
lish spirit  of  freedom  as  our  forefathers  in  New-England, 
with   all  their  boasted   Puritanism,  making  due  allowance  for 

*  Milton. 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  AMHERST.  345 

the  former  as  Episcopalians.  The  settlers  of  Virginia  were 
authorized,  by  their  charters,  to  govern  themselves  accord- 
ing to  their  own  discretion.  They  were  allowed  to  coin 
money,  and  to  possess  all  the  liberties  and  franchises  of  na- 
tive Britons.  The  civil  power  was,  at  the  beginning,  de- 
puted to  a  council  appointed  by  the  crown.  They  soon, 
however,  elected  a  House  of  Representatives  or  House  of 
Burgesses,  which  continued  down  to  the  period  of  our  na- 
tional independency.  But  they  were  not  watched  and  over- 
looked by  the  jealous  eye  of  the  mother-country,  as  we  in 
New  England  were.  The  powers,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  had 
a  better  opinion  of  the  obedience  of  Roman  Catholics,  and 
their  first  cousins,  the  English  Episcopalians  ;  for  Virginia,  in- 
cluding the  territory  of  Maryland,  was  settled  by  Episcopalians 
and  Roman  Catholics,  both,  in  a  degree,  slaves  by  system, 
compared  with  the  almost  Indian  freedom  of  the  New  England 
Independents,  who  were  disposed  to  acknowledge  no  other 
Sovereign  than  King  Jesus.  That  detached  portion  of  Vir- 
ginia, called  Maryland,  had  a  charter  from  King  Charles  the 
First,  with  more  unlimited  powers  than  even  the  original  do- 
minion. It  expressly  stated,  that  they  should  be  free  from  all 
impositions  of  taxes  and  duties  by  Parliament.  They  actually 
were  allowed  to  exercise,  under  a  Roman  Catholic  Governor, 
all  the  high  powers  of  a  sovereign  state.  Virginia  possessed 
as  much  of  the  essential  privileges  of  independence  as  Mas- 
sachusetts, if  not  more.  Their  colonial  covenants  partook 
more  of  treaties  between  two  separate  powers,  than  charters 
granted  by  a  sovereign  state  to  a  dependent  colony.  They 
wisely  enjoyed  their  freedom  without  boasting  of  it,  or  talking 
too  much  about  it.  They,  however,  unfortunately  admitted 
the  slavery  of  the  Africans,  in  which  they  were  encouraged  by 
the  mother  country,  while  all  New  England  wisely  preserved 
herself  free  from  it. 


44 


346  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

After  George  the  Third  came  to  the  crown,  when  John 
Stuart,  Earl  of  Bute,  Lord  Mansfield,  Lord  Granville,'^ 
Archbishop  Seeker,  and  the  followers  of  the  Princess  Dowager 
of  Wales,  influenced  the  councils  of  the  young  monarch,  it 
seemed  voted  and  resolved  in*  the  interior  cahinet,  to  curtail 
the  exercise  of  self-government  hy  the  colonists,  which  they 
had  left  their  native  land  to  enjoy,  and  to  reduce  them  to  mere 
corporation  privileges.  A  new  system  of  governing  America 
was  contemplated  immediately  after  the  peace,  in  which  rais- 
ing a  revenue  by  internal  taxation  was  the  prominent  feature ; 
and  this  was  in  addition  to  that  external  taxation,  which  the 
Americans  already  paid  under  the  name  of  regulations  of 
trade,  and  to  which  they  had  pretty  cheerfully  submitted  for 
the  benefit  of  the  ivhole  empire,  as  a  contribution  for  their  pri- 
vate security  and  public  safety ;  and  they  adhered  to  it  with 
far  less  smuggling  than  is  practised  in  the  ports  of  Great 
Britain.  With  this  plan  in  view,  it  w-as  at  once  foreseen,  that 
General  Sir  JefFery  Amherst,  the  cleve  of  Pitt,  was  not  the 
man  for  their  purpose.  This  Butean  system  (for  so  we  think 
we  have  reason  to  designate  the  suggestions  of  the  irresponsible 
cabinet,  under  which  the  ostensible  administration  of  the  obse- 
quious Duke  of  Grafton  acted)  created  a  new  office,  a  Secre- 
taryship of  State  for  the  American  Department,  to  which  sta- 
tion the  Earl  of  Hillsborough  was  appointed  ;  and  General 
Amherst  was  dismissed  from  his  government  of  Virginia  with  so 
little  ceremony,  as  to  merit,  according  to  Junius,  the  name  of 
msult,  and  Lord  Botetourt  appointed  in  his  place. 

Lord  Hillsborough  was'  a  man  of  few  and  .light  talents  in 
the  opinion  of  Junius,  who,  under  the  signatiu-e  of  Lucius, 
says,  that  his  Lordship  is  civil  and  polite;  that  few  men  under- 
stand the  little  morals  better,  or  observe  the  great  ones  less ; 
that  he  can  bow  and  smile  in  an  honest  man's  face,  w^hile  he 
picks  his  pocket.     "  These  are  the  virtues  of  a  court,  in  which 

*  We  caution  the  young  American  reader  not  to  mistake  Granville 
for  Grenville.  The  former  was  originally  Lord  Carteret,  very  honor- 
ably mentioned,  if  not  flattered,  by  Dean  Swift,  in  1730. 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  AMHERST.  347 

your  education,"  says  Junius,  "  has  not  been  neglected.  In 
any  other  school  you  might  have  learned,  that  simplicity  and 
integrity  are  worth  them  all.  Sir  Jeffery  Amherst  was  fighting 
the  battles  of  his  country,  while  you,  my  Lord,  the  darling 
child  of  prudence  and  urbanity,  were  practising  the  generous 
arts  of  a  courtier,  and  securing  an  honorable  interest  in  the  an- 
te-chamber of  a  favorite.  "  As  a  man  of  abilities  for  pub- 
lic business,  your  first  expeiiment  has  been  unfortunate. 
Your  circular  letter  to  the  American  governors,  both  for 
matter  and  composition,  is  a  performance  which  a  school- 
boy ought  to  blush  for." — "  Instead  of  clear,  precise  instruc- 
tions, adapted  to  the  temper,  circumstances,  and  interests  of 
the  several  provinces,  wherein  you  might  have  shown  your 
political  abilities  as  well  as  your  knowledge  of  that  country, — 
what  have  you  done  ?  "  Yet  the  ministerial  writers  of  that 
day  asserted,  that  Lord  Hillsborough's  great  abilities  were 
brought  into  public  office  to  correct  the  blunders  of  Pittas 
administration  ! 

The  answer  of  the  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  to  Lord  Hills- 
borough's circular  was  written  entirely  by  Samuel  Adams. 
Had  we  never  seen  the  printed  remarks  of  Junius  on  his 
Lordship's  Letter  to  the  American  Governors,  we  might  have 
been  excused  for  pronouncing  one  as  the  production  of  a  boy, 
and  the  other  that  of  an  able,  wise,  and  temperate  man.  This 
reply  to  the  new-formed  Secretary  of  State  for  America,  to-- 
gether  with  the  circular  addressed  to  the  Sister  Colonies  from 
the  same  pen,  struck  out  a  spark  that  set  every  Province  in  a 
blaze  of  patriotism,  and  produced,  as  usual,  effects  directly 
contrary  to  what  were  intended  and  predicted  by  the  British 
ministry. 

As  to  Lord  Botetourt,  Junius  describes  him  as  a  character 
very  different  from  that  of  Amherst,  whom  he  supplanted.  He 
was  one  of  the  household  troops,  connected  in  office  with  the 
palace,  being  sword-bearer  to  his  Majesty  5  previously  to  which 
he  had  ruined  himself  by  gambling  and  extravagance.     If  this 


348  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

be  the  true  character  of  that  nobleman,  what  a  contrast  to  that 
of  Lord  Amherst.* 

Such  a  man  and  such  an  officer  as  General  Amherst,  pa- 
tronized so  particularly  by  Lord  Ciiatham,  would  have  been 
the  most  proper  person  for  a  Governor-General  of  America, 
according  .to  the  British  notions  of  governing  us.  We  discover 
the  political  opinion  of  Junius  from  the  following  passage  of  his 
Letter,  addressed  to  the  Printer  of  ihe  PubUc  Advertiser, 
signed  Atticus.  "  But  I  see  the  spirit  which  has  gone  abroad 
through  the  colonies,  and  I  know  what  consequences  that  spirit 
must  and  will  produce.  If  it  be  determined  to  enforce  the  au- 
thority of  the  legislature,  the  event  will  be  uncertain  ;  but  if  we 
yield  to  the  pretensions  of  America,  there  is  no  further  doubt 
about  the  matter.  From  that  moment  they  become  an  inde- 
pendent people  ;  they  open  their  trade  with  the  rest  of  the 
world,  and  England  is  undone. 

"  In  these  circumstances,  calamitous  as  they  are,  I  yet  think 
the  uniform  direction  of  a  great  and  able  minister  might  do 
much.  His  earliest  care,  I  am  persuaded,  would  be  to  pro- 
vide a  fund  to  support  the  first  alarm  and  expense  of  a  rup- 
ture with  France.  If  prepared  to  meet  a  war,  he  might  per- 
haps avoid  it.  His  next  object  would  be  to  form  a  plan  of 
agreement  with  the  colonies.  He  would  consent  to  yield  some 
ground  to  the  Americans,  if  it  were  possible  to  receive  a  secu- 
■riiy  from  them,  that  they  never  would  advance  beyond  a 

LINE  then  drawn,    UPON   CONDITIONS   MUTUALLY  AGREED   ON. 

By  an  equitable  offer  of  this  kind,  he  would  certainly  unite  this 
country  in  the  support  of  his  measures  ;  and  lam  persuaded 
he  would  have  the  reasonable  part  of  the  Americans  on  his 
side."! 

*  General  Amherst  was  created  a  Peer  in  May,  1776.  He  was 
Commander  in  Chief  of  the  armies  of  Great  Britain  several  years,  and 
Lieutenant-General  of  the  Ordnance ;  was  made  a  Field-Marshal  in 
July,  1796 ;  and  died  at  Montreal,  his  seat  in  Kent,  August  3,  1797. 

f  Letter  XLV.  October  6,  1768,  Atticus.      Miscellaneous. 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  AMHERST.  349 

I  would  here  ask  if  this  is  not  the  precise  doctrine  which  was 
maintained  by  Lord  Chatham  respecting  America,  and  for 
which  he  contended  against  the  Duke  of  Richbiond  to  the 
last  moment  of  his  political  existence  ? 

The  doctrine  is  explicitly  this  ;  Tax  yourselves,  govern  your- 
selves, wear  an  union  flag ;  and  give  us  the  preference  in  every- 
thing, and  rely  on,- the  protection  of  owr  invincible  navy,  and 
never  think  of  building  one  o^  your  own. 

*'  Henceforth  let  Whig  and  Toi-y  cease, 
And  turn  all  party  rage  to  peace  ; 
Rouse  and  revive  our  ancient  glory, 
Unite  and  drive  the  world  before  ye." 

This  was  the  feeling  of  the  great  body  of  Whigs  on  both 
sides  of  the  Atlantic.     A  few  only  saw  farther. 

It  is  worse  than  labor  lost,  to  rely  on  certain  books  called 
histories  of  England, — histories  of  tlie  reign  of  George  the 
Third,  from  the  year  1762  to  the  term  when  peace  was  con- 
cluded with  the  United  States.  Each  party  exaggerates,  or 
extenuates,  or  else  omits  the  real  state  of  facts,  or  places  a 
real  fact  with  its  wrong  end  foremost,  so  as  to  appear  what 
it  is  not.  During  the  time  specified,  most  truth  is  to  be 
collected  from  anonymous  writers.  The  Britons  boast  of 
their  freedom  of  s|  eech  and  freedom  of  the  press;  but  their 
historians  do  not,  half  the  time,  speak  what  they  know  to 
be  true  of  courts  and  crowned  heads.  Whether  this  be 
from  fear  of  the  law's  steel  trap,  or  merely  the  policy  of  the 
trade,  we  are  too  far  off  to  determine.  But  it  is  a  fact, 
that  we  have  more  exact  and  fearless  •  accounts  in  p,rint  of 
the  character  and  conduct  of  French  Kings,  Queens,  Prin- 
cesses, and  their  Courts,  than  of  the  Kings,  Queens,  Princess- 
es, and  Courts  of  tbe  British  nation  ;  and  far  less  backward- 
ness in  speaking  of  their  follies  and  crimes.  How  comes  this  ? 
Have  the  Britons  more  delicacy  and  gallantry  than  the  French, 
or  less  liberty  ?  The  personal  character  and  conduct  of  George 
the  Third  is  less  known  and  diffused  throughout  the  island  of 
Great  Britain  than  throughout  America.      We  are  at  such  a 


350  CONCERNIJNG  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

happy  distance  that  we  can  take  into  view  a  larger  landscape, 
and  contemplate  it  with  perfect  composure,  without  fear  of  of- 
fending any  hody,  as  we  do  when  judging  of  tlie  history  of  an- 
cient Greece  and  Rome.  So  we  can  judge  of  the  means  taken 
to  destroy  the  richest  fruits  of  the  Herculean  labors  of  Lord 
Chatham  ;  like  the  workings  of  the  worm  in  the  bottoms  of 
ships,  operating  destruction  silently  and  fatally  under  the  sur- 
face.      • 

However  familiar  in  conversation,  George  the  Third  pre- 
served remarkable  state  in  some  other  matters-  No  court  in 
Europe  had  so  many  officers,  so  many  footmen  of  high  rank. 
Think,  republicans  !  of  noblemen,  even  aged  Peers,  waiting 
upon  a  young  monarch,  standing  behind  his  chair,  serving  at 
his  toilet,  and  dressing  him  ;  and  this  degradation  for  money, 
for  titles,  ribbons,  stars,  so  called,  and  offices  of  no  business  ; 
or,  to  express  it  all  in  one  word,  for  Nobility  !  *  It  is  no 
wonder  that  Junius  was  sarcastic,  Chatham  impatient,  fretful, 
and,  at  times,  contemptuous,  in  his  intercourse  with  the  privi- 
leged order,  when  sprigs  of  it  were  preferred  before  such  char- 
acters as  General  Amherst,  whose  ill  treatment  is  discussed  in 
Letters,  entitled  JMiscellaneous,  between  the  Numbers  XXX. 
and  XLIV.  in  the  younger  Woodfall's  edition  of  Junius. 
They  express  not  merely  indignation  but  resentment.  They 
hint  ihat  the  manner  of  the  affront  was  intended  as  a  back-hand- 
ed blow  at  Lord  Chatham.  Sir  JefFery  Amherst,  a  soldier  from 
infancy,  and  a  very  popular  general,  had  carried  his  own  fame 
and  that  of  Pitt's  through  every  town  and  village  of  Great 
Britain,  Ireland,  and  America, — countries  where  pubHc  opin- 
ion bears  on  its  strong  wings  every  thing  good  or  evil. 

The  Right  Hon.  Henry  Bilson  Legge  had  talents  and  char- 
acter which  made  him  a  most  valuable  adjunct  to  Lord  Chat- 
ham. The  baleful  influence,  of  which  that  nobleman  com- 
plained, was  exerted  to  pull  this  prop  from  under  him.  Hence 
we  conceive   the  indignation  of  Junius  at  his  dismission,  and 

*  See,  on  this  head,  Horace  Walpole,  and  Lemuel  Gulliver's  Travels 
in  I/illiput. 


NOTICE  OF  LORD  AMHERST.  351 

the  almost  rage  of  the  same  writer  at  the  attempt  to  pull  away 
the  other  siihstantial  prop  of  Chatham's  fame, — the  popular 
general.  He  says  of  it,  "  A  government  shameless  or  ill  ad- 
vised enough  to  treat  with  disregard  the  obligation  due  to  pub- 
lic services,  not  only  sets  a  most  pernicious  example  to  its  sub- 
jects, but  does  a  flagrant  injury  to  society.  Reflections,  such 
as  these,  crowded  upon  my  mind  the  moment  1  heard  that  the 
late  commander-in-chief  had  been  dismissed,  without  ceremo- 
ny, from  his  government  of  Virginia.  I  was  grieved  to  see 
such  a  man  so  treated  ;  but  when  I  considered  this  step  as  an 
omen  of  the  real  resolution  of  the  ministry  with  respect  to 
America,  I  forgot,  as  he  himself  will  do,  the  private  injury, 
and  lamented  nothing  but  the  puhlic  misfortune.''^ 

Lord  Chatham  doubtless  saw,  in  prospective,  the  course  of 
things  in  Old  England  and  in  JVeio,  and  dreaded  the  conse- 
quences ;  dreaded  a  solution  of  continuity  in  the  politics  of  the 
mother  country  and  her  offspring.  This  was  a  period  of  anx- 
ious solicitude  with  wise  men  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic.  The 
celebrated  Horace  Walpole,  writing  to  his  kinsman,  General 
Conway,  about  that  time,  says,  "  The  long  expected  sloop  is 
arrived  at  last,  and  is  indeed  a  man  of  war  I  The  general 
Congress  have  voted  (1.)  A  non-importation.  (2.)  A  non- 
exportation.  And  (3.)  A  non-consumption.  The  Americans, 
at  least,  have  acted  like  men,  gone  to  the  bottom  at  once,  and 
set  the  whole  upon  the  whole.  Our  conduct  has  been  that  of 
pert  children  ;  we  have  thrown  a  pebble  at  a  mastiff;  and  are 
surprised  it  was  not  frightened.  Now  we  must  be  worried  by 
it,  or  must  kill  the  guardian  of  the  house,  which  will  be  plun- 
dered the  moment  little  master  has  nothing  but  the  old  nurse 
to  defend  it." 

It  was  well  that  General  Amherst  was  not  sent  out  Prefect  to 
this  country,  where  Lord  Botetourt  met  little  else  than  mortifi- 
cation. Matters  had  proceeded  too  far,  for  even  the  prudent 
and  popular  Sir  Jeffery  Amherst  to  have  managed  with  satis- 
faction to  himself  and  to  America.  Patrick  Henry  in  the 
South,  and  Samuel  Adams  in  the  jYbr/:A,  had  fixed  their  steady 


352  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

eyes  on  Independency  ;  and  nothing  short  of  it  could  pacify 
those  political  seers  and  the  hw,  who,  at  that  early  period,  felt 
like  them  upon  the  great  question  of  self-government.  Not 
long  after  the  period  to  which  I  refer,  their  sentiments  became 
general;  when  every  thing  about  us,  even  the  face  and  course 
of  nature,  the  still  small  voice  of  religion, — all, — all  were  con- 
strued into  so  many  calls,  more  or  less  loud,  for  a  separation 
of  vast  America  from  the  small  island  of  Britain. 

While  war  and  vengeance  were  denounced  by  the  ministry 
against  the  rebellious  people  of  Massachusetts,  the  Governor 
of  Virginia  was  instructed  to  use  the  gentlest  promises  of  kind 
relief  and  satisfaction  towards  the  Southern  Colonists.  Ac- 
cordingly, Lord  Botetourt  says  to  the  Assembly  of  Virginia, 
in  May,  1769,  "  I  think  myself  peculiarly  fortunate  to  be  able 
to  inform  you,  by  a  letter  from  the  Earl  of  Hillsborough,  that 
his  Majesty's  present  administration  have  at  no  time  entertained 
a  design  to  propose  to  Parliament  to  lay  any  further  taxes 
upon  America  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a  revenue,  and  that 
it  is  their  intention  to  propose,  in  the  next  session  of  Parlia- 
ment to  take  off  the  duties  upon  glass,  paper,  and  colors,  upon 
consideration  of  such  duties  having  been  paid  contrary  to  the 
true  principles  of  commerce.^^ 

In  answer  to  the  speech  of  the  royal  Governor  to  the  House 
of  Burgesses,  they  say  to  him,  "  We  have  examined  it  [the 
conciliatory  proposition]  minutely  ;  we  have  viewed  it  in  every 
point  of  light  in  which  we  are  able  to  place  it,  and  with  pain 
and  disappointment  we  must  ultimately  declare,  it  only  changes 
the  form  of  oppression  without  lightening  the  burden."  And, 
after  saying  that  "  Lord  Chatham's  bill  on  the  one  hand,  and 
the  terms  of  the  Congress  on  the  other,  would  have  formed  a 
basil  for  negotiation,  which  a  spirit  of  accommodation,  on  both 
sides,  might  perhaps  have  reconciled,"  they  close  with  these 
impressive  words.  "  We  have  decently  remonstrated  with  Par- 
liament;  they  have  added  new  injuries  to  the  old.  We  have 
wearied  our  King  with  supplications  ',  he  has  not  deigned  to 
answer  us.     We  have  appealed  to  the  native  honor  and  justice 


CONSPIRATION  OF  THE  COLONIES,  353 

of  the  British  nation  ;  their  efforts  in  our  favor  have  been 
hitherto  ineffectual.  What  then  is  to  be  done  ?  That  we  com- 
mit ourselves  to  the  even-handed  justice  of  that  Being  who 
doeth  no  wrong ;  earnestly  beseeching  Him  to  illuminate  the 
councils,  and  prosper  the  endeavours  of  those  to  whom  Ameri- 
ca hath  confided  her  hopes,  *hat,  through  their  wise  direction, 
we  may  again  see  re-united  the  blessings  of  liberty  and  proper- 
ty, and  the  most  permanent  harmony  with  Great-Britain." 
After  expressing  loyalty  to  the  King  and  amity  to  the  mother 
country,  they  adjourned.  But  four  days  after,  they,  in  imita- 
tion of  the  Assembly  of  Massachusetts  when  they  constituted 
their  Provincial  Congress,  formed  themselves  into  a  Conven- 
tion of  Delegates  to  supply  the  place  of  the  House  of  Bur- 
gesses, and  went  on  in  their  legislative  duties  in  the  same  form 
and  order,  making  their  parliamentary  business  a  continuation, 
rather  than  a  revolution  of  government. 

Maryland,  Virginia's  offspring,  followed  her  example  ;  and 
amongst  other  spirited  resolves,  their  convention  voted  unani- 
mously, that  "  We  do  unite  as  one  band,  and  solemnly  pledge 
ourselves  to  each  other  and  to  America,  that  we  will,  to  the 
utmost  of  our  power,  support  the  present  opposition  carrying 
on,  as  well  by  arms  as  the  continental  association  restraining 
our  commerce."  They  moreover  voted  to  enroll  forty  com- 
panies of  "  minute-men"  of  every  effective  freeman  between 
sixteen  and  fifty,  practising  physicians  and  those  persons  who, 
from  their  religious  principles,  cannot  bear  arms  in  any  case, 
excepted."  Thus  was  war  fit  up  at  both  ends  of  the  United 
Colonies,  which  neither  Chatham  nor  Amherst  could  have 
averted,  so  long  as  the  wretched  poKcy  of  Britain  was  that  of 
playing  one  colony  against  the  other,  on  the  imbecile  maxim  of 
Divide  and  conquer. 


45 


CHAPTER  XII. 

TKANSCRIPTION   AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  JUNIUs's  LETTERS. 

In  the  foregoing  chapter  we  have  inserted  notices  or  sketch- 
es of  those  distinguished  persons  who  appear  prominent  in  the 
volumes  of  Junius,  omitting  Sii-  William  Draper,  as  a  mere 
mihtary  character,  incidentally  brought  before  the  public,  and 
little  connected  with  the  design  of  this  inquiry.  Those  per- 
sonages were  Lord  Camden,  Lord  Mansjield,  Henry  Fox, 
Lord  Holland,  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  Duke  of  Grafton,  and 
General,  Lord  Amherst. 

We  have  overcome  our  reluctance  to  multiply  pages,  from 
a  persuasion  that  we  are  bound  to  show,  on  our  hypothe- 
sis, how  Lord  Chatham  came  to  feel  affinity,  or  affihation,  with 
Lord  Camden  ;  and  how,  also,  repulsion  as  it  regarded  Lord 
Chief  Justice  Mansfield  ;  and  that  the  same  affinity  and  repul- 
sion pervade  likewise  the  pages  of  Junius.  We  deemed  it  of 
some  importance  to  dwell  a  little  upon  the  mixed  feelings  of 
Lord  Chatham  and  of  Junius  towards  Lord  Holland,  a  man 
of  heterogenous  composition,  superinduced  on  a  firm  and  hon- 
orable character.  It  was  impossible  to  skip  over  the  antipathy 
between  Junius  and  the  Duke  of  Bedford,  Lord  Bute's  repre- 
sentative in  arranging  the  articles  of  the  peace  at  the  court 
of  Versailles  ;  he  who  tried  to  demolish  the  triumphal  arch 
which  Fame  had  erected,  out  of  French  materials,  to  the 
honor  of  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham. 

Not  having,  at  first  view,  a  clear  sight  of  the  cause  which 
produced  the  remarkable  vituperation  of  Junius  towards  the 
Duke  of  Grafton,  we  were  compelled  to  bestow  more  time  and 
attention  upon  that  pohtical  camelion,  than  the  subject  was 
really  worth,  unless  it  were  to  confirm  the  notion,  prevalent  in 
this  country,  that  George  the  Third  was  in  reality  his  own  min- 
ister from  1762  to  the  peace  with  these  United  States 


RESPECT  IN  AMERICA  FOR  PITT  AND  AMHERST.       355 

We  dwell  with  more  interest  on  the  article  respecting  Gene- 
ral Amherst,  as  a  link  in  the  chain  of  our  own  history,  and  as 
exhibiting  instances  of  abounding  cunning  and  deficient  wis- 
dom in  the  efforts  of  the  crown  to  force  America  to  submit  to 
her  arbitrary  system  of  internal  taxation.  I  say  internal,  in 
contradistinction  to  the  external  contribution,  connected  with 
that  superintendence  which  regulates  and  controls  trade  and 
navigation  ;  the  one  being  private,  individual,  and  sacred  ;  the 
other  extended,  and  of  comphcated  consideration,  reaching  as 
far  as  ships  can  sail  or  winds  can  blow.  The  majority  of  Par- 
liament, without  confining  the  remark  to  the  country  gentle- 
men, never  appeared  to  us  to  understand   this  vital  distinction. 

Americans  experience  a  pleasant  consociation  of  ideas,  when- 
ever the  names  of  Sir  Jeffery  Amherst  and  William  Pitt  *  are 
mentioned.  They  recall  to  mind  a  happy  period  in  our  colo- 
nial history,  as  it  regards  those  eminent  characters,  and  bring 
np  the  pleasant  idea  of  confidential  friendship,  entwining  the 
palm  of  the  soldier  with  the  laurel  of  the  statesman. 

That  Junius  should  write  a  dozen  Letters,  under  various 
signatures,  expressive  of  his  disgust  at  the  treatment  of  General 
Amherst,  and  that  the  British  public  generally  knew  that  treat- 
ment was  a  backhanded  stroke  at  Lord  Chatham,  are  facts  of  no 
small  importance  in  establishing  our  idea  of  the  authorship  of 
Junius.  That  disinterested  nobleman  bore  the  abuse  in  sullen 
silence   as  it  regarded   individuals  ;  but  he  denounced,  in  the 

*  We  recollect  seventeen  towns  in  the  United  States,  named  in 
honor  of  Pitt.  One  built  on  the  site  of  old  Fort  Pitt,  at  the  confluence 
of  the  Alleghany  and  Monongahela,  forming  the  Ohio ;  now  the  Bir- 
mingham  of  America,  in  which  are  a  national  arsenal  and  very  exten- 
sive armory.  This  flourishing  town  is  called  Pittsburg,  Another  of 
the  same  name  in  the  county  of  Chatham,  North  Carolina.  In  New 
Hampshire  and  Massachusetts,  several  called  Piltsjield,  Pittston,  Piits- 
vitle.  Pittsford,  &c.  In  New  Hampshire  is  a  flourishing  town  called 
Amherst ;  in  Massachusetts  another  with  a  college,  called  after  the 
General ;  one  or  more  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and  two  in  Virginia, 
besides  certain  mineral  springs,  bearing  the  name  o^  Amherst.  These 
are  tokens  of  regard  and  gratitude,  more  lasting  than  statues,  and 
more  in  character  than  graven  images. 


356  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

Strongest  terms,  the  political  conduct  of  his  enemies.  "  Were 
I  disposed,"  said  he  in  the  House  of  Lords,  when-  he  offered 
his  bill  for  conciliation  with  America,  "  to  pursue  this  theme 
to  the  extent  that  truth  would  bear  me  out  in,  I  could  demon- 
strate, that  the  whole  of  your  political  conduct  has  been  one 
continued  series  of  weakness,  temerity,  despotism,  incapacity, 
and  corruption.  On  reconsideration,  I  must  allow  you  one 
merit,  a  strict  attention  to  your  interests  ;  in  that  view  you  ap- 
pear sound  statesmen  and  able  politicians.  You  well  knew,  if 
the  present  measure  should  prevail,  that  you  must  instantly  re- 
linquish your  places.  I  doubt  much  whether  you  will  be  able 
to  keep  them  on  any  terms  ;  but  sure  I  am,  such  are  your  well 
known  characters  and  abilities,  that  any  plan  of  reconciliation, 
however  moderate,  wise,  and  feasible,  must  fail  in  your  hands. 
Such,  then,  being  your  precarious  situations,  who  would  won- 
der that  you  can  put  a  negative  on  any  measure  which  must  an- 
nihilate your  power,  deprive  you  of  your  emoluments,  and  at 
once  reduce  you  to  that  state  of  insignificance,  for  which  God 
and  nature  designed  you  ?  "  * 

Lord  Chatham  gave  himself  a  respite  from  all  kinds  of  busi- 
ness in  the  year  1769.  He  attended  Parliament  in  1770  ; 
but  not  in  1771,  1772,  and  1773  ;  but  in  the  year  1774  the 
affairs  of  America  brought  him  forward  again.  In  May,  1777, 
he  re-appeared,  and  made  one  more  effort  to  concihate  the  per- 
turbed spirits  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  when  he  said, 

"  My  Lords, — This  is  a  flying  moment ;  perhaps  but  six 
weeks  left  to  arrest  the  dangers  that  surround  us.  The  gath- 
ering storm  may  break  ;  it  has  already  opened,  and  in  part 
burst.  It  is  difficult  for  government,  after  all  that  has  passed, 
to  shake  hands  with  defiers  of  the  King,  defiers  of  the  Parfia- 
ment,  defiers  of  the  people.  I  am  a  defier  of  nobody  ;  but  if 
an  end  is  not  put  to  this  war,  there  is  an  end  of  this  country. 

*  This  tremendous  philippic  against  the  whole  administration  was 
chiefly  directed  to  Lord  Sandwich,  who  insisted  that  any  concession  to 
America  was  an  abandonment  of  the  cause  of  government,  in  which 
he  was  followed  by  the  Duke  of  Grafton  and  Lord  Hillsborough. 


CHATHAM'S  ATTEMPTS  AT  CONCILIATION.  357 

I  do  not  trust  my  judgment  in  my  present  state  of  health  ;  this 
is  the  judgment  of  my  better  days  ;  the  resuh  of  forty  years' 
attention  to  America.  They  are  rebels  ;  but  what  are  they 
rebels  for  ?  Surely  not  for  defending  their  unquestionable 
rights  !  What  have  these  rebels  done  heretofore  ?  I  remem- 
ber when  they  raised  four  regiments  on  their  own  bottom,  and 
took  Louisburg  from  the  veteran  troops  of  France.*  But 
their  excesses  have  been  great.  I  do  not  mean  to  be  their 
panegyrist ;  but  must  observe,  in  extenuation,  the  erroneous 
and  infatuated  councils  which  have  prevailed  ; — the  door  to 
mercy  and  to  justice  has  been  shut  against  them.  But  they 
may  still  be  taken  up  upon  the  grounds  of  their  former  sub- 
mission. [Referring  to  their  petition.]  I  state  to  you  the  im- 
portance of  America  ;  it  is  a  double  market ;  the  market  of 
consumption  and  the  market  of  supply.  This  double  market 
for  millions  with  naval  stores,  you  are  giving  to  your  hereditary 
rival. 

"  America  has  carried  you  through  former  wars,  and  will 
carry  you  to  your  death  if  you  don't  take  things  in  time.  You 
have  ransacked  every  corner  of  Lower  Saxony  ;  but  forty 
thousand  German  boors  never  can  conquer  ten  times  the  num- 
ber of  British  freemen  ;  they  may  ravage  ;  they  cannot  con- 
quer. But  you  will  conquer,  you  say  !  Why,  what  would 
you  conquer  ?  The  map  of  America.  I  am  ready  to  meet 
any  general  officer  on  the  subject  (looking  at  Lord  Amherst.) 
What  will  you  do  out  of  the  protection  of  your  fleet  ?  In  the 
winter,  if  together,  they  are  starved  ;  and  if  dispersed,  they 
are  taken  off  in  detail.  I  am  experienced  in  spring  hopes  and 
vernal  promises ;  I  know  what  ministers  throw  out ;  but  at 
last  will  come  your  equinoctial  disappointment.  [When  Lord 
Chatham  uttered  this  ominous  speech,  Burgoyne's  army  was 
embarking  for  America.  I  remember  that  new  maps  of  its  route, 
just  from  the  press,  were  as  plenty  in  London,  in  the  hands  of 

*  The  British  historians  generally  pass  over  in  silence  this  fact  so 
honorable  to  America,  particularly  to  New  England,  and  more  par- 
ticularly to  Boston. 


358  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

American  refugees,  as  pamphlets.  They  talked  of  little  else 
than  driving  all  before  them  triumphantly  from  the  Lakes  to 
Boston.  But,  ere  the  equinoctial  season  was  passed,  that  well- 
appointed  army  laid  down  their  arms  at  Saratoga,  and  surren- 
dered to  the  American  yeomanry  !] 

"  If  ministers  are  founded,"  continues  Lord  Chatham,  "  in 
saying  there  is  no  sort  of  treaty  with  France,  there  is  still  a 
moment  left ',  the  point  of  honor  is  still  safe.  France  must  be 
as  self-destroying  as  England,  to  make  a  treaty  while  you  are 
giving  her  America  at  the  expense  of  twelve  millions  a  year. 
The  intercourse  has  produced  every  thing  to  France ;  and 
England,  old  England,  must  pay  for  all.  I  have,  at  different 
times,  made  different  propositions,  adapted  to  the  circum- 
stances in  which  they  were  offered.  The  plan  contained  in 
the  former  bill  is  now  impracticable  ;  the  present  motion  will 
tell  you  where  you  are,  and  what  you  have  now"  to  depend 
upon." 

His  motion  for  concihation  was  negatived  by  a  very  large 
majority. 

Our  first  intention  was  to  bring  to  probate  the  last  will 
and  testament  of  Junius  only,  as  witnessed  by  his  printer, 
Henry  Sampson  Woodfall,  being  those  Letters  prepared  by 
himself  for  the  press.  But  we  must  now  include  a  few  others, 
recognised  by  him  in  his  private  correspondence  with  Mr. 
Woodfall, — some  without  signature  and  some  with,— as  Atti- 
cus,  Valerius,  Lucius,  Brutus,  Domitlan,  Anti-Fox, — all  bear- 
ing indubitable  marks  of  the  same  pen ;  while  we  reject  others 
as  too  mean  in  phraseology  and  epithet  to  spring  from  the  same 
tasteful  author.  Junttjs  saying  to  his  printer,  "  You  know  I 
do  not,  nor  have  I  time  to  give  an  equal  care  to  them  all,"  is 
not  a  sufficient  excuse  for  the  coarseness  and  leanness  of  some 
of  the  essays  scraped  together  under  the  head  of  Miscellaneous 
Letters.  When  Junius  predicted  that  posterity  would  read 
his  writings,  he  could  not  have  meant,  that  every  scrap  and  ex- 
crescence of  ill  humor,  unwisely  exhibited  to  the  eye  on  paper 
when  he  was  out  of  conceit  with  himself  and  with  the  city  poll- 


HIS  ZEAL  FOR  CONCILIATION.  359 

ticians,  instead  of  being  immediately  buried,  should  be  left  ex- 
posed above  ground.  It  is  a  pity  that  a  scavenger  had  not 
followed  Dean  Swift's  remains,  before  editors  and  printers 
scrambled  for  his  exuvice  ;  and  so  of  some  later  writers. 

The  power  of  Junius  in  maintaining  his  invisibility,  in  spite 
of  the  most  prying  curiosity  when  winged  with  vengeance,  bor- 
ders on  the  wonderful,  considering  that  Britain  had  a  King  at 
that  time  remarkable  for  inquisitiveness,  and  for  paying  "  rather 
too  much  attention  to  the  sins  of  his  neighbours,''''  *  while  he 
had  a  double  cabinet,  over  which  presided  curiosity  personi- 
fied. Yet  all  combined  was,  it  seems,  unable  to  detect  that 
political  Sagittarius,  who,  fed  with  lion's  marrow,  instruct- 
ed Hercules  how  to  rid  the  world  of  its  plagues.  Still  he 
maintained  his  sway  ;  none  so  high  but  was  reached  by  his 
arrows,  nor  so  low  as  to  escape  his  tomahawk  ;  and  yet  he  re- 
mained, like  the  ancient  Hercules,  visible  only  by  the  effects  of 
his  labors.  Yet  our  modern  Hero  differed  from  the  heathen, 
seeing  he  aimed  not  always  to  pierce  the  vitals,  but  to  heal 
and  restore.  Hence  this  salutiferous  reformer  fingered  every 
sore,  probed  deep  every  ulcer  through  all  its  sinuosities,  and 
exposed  to  view  each  livid  spot  of  mortification  in  the  body 
politic,  without  appearing  affected  by  the  contortions,  wry  faces, 
or  agony  of  the  patient.  It  is  neither  just  nor  generous  to  con- 
sider Junius,  as  many  do,  a  malignant,  supernal  archer,  shoot- 
ing barbed  arrows  from  impenetrable  coverts,  more  like  the 
demon  of  destruction  than  a  skilful  political  chirurgeon,  whose 
object  was  to  save  by  "  infusing  a  portion  of  new  health  into 
the  constitution  to  enable  it  to  bear  its  infirmities,"  or  to  restore 
it  to  its  pristine  vigor,  as  at  the  revolution  in  1688. 

To  rouse  up  an  indolent  and  sickly  people  to  a  sense  of 
their  condition,  and  to  induce  them  to  make  use  of  profiered 
remedies,  required  the  wisdom  of  a  sage  and  the  nice  hand  of  a 
master.  In  some  countries  and  periods  of  the  world,  before 
printing  gave  wings  to  literature.  Prophets   and  Apostles  were 

*  Earl  Waldegrave,  Governor  to  George  the  Third,  when  Prince  of 
Walea. 


360  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

sent  to  reclaim  backsliding  kings  and  a  perverse  people.  But 
the  denunciations  of  the  one,  and  the  exhortations  of  the  other, 
were  confined  to  narrow  bounds,  circumscribed  to  Httle  more 
than  the  compass  of  the  human  voice  ;  whereas  now  the  Press, 
under  the  guardianship  of  Liberty,  writes  the  fearful  denuncia- 
tions on  the  interior  of  palaces  and  castles,  and  its  triumph  has 
never  been  so  great  as  when  that  most  potent  engine  was  worked 
by  the  hand  of  an  invisible  agent.  The  histories  of  honorable 
deceptions,  called  stratagems  of  war,  from  Hannibal  to  Wash- 
ington, from  Washington  to  Napoleon,  prove,  that  they  depend- 
ed altogether  on  the  superior  genius  of  the  commander.  Infi- 
nite as  the  means  of  deception  are,  in  holding  up  one  thing  while 
intending  another,  the  object  is  security  and  efficacy.  Strata- 
gems in  war  are  for  an  hour,  a  day,  and  rarely  for  months  ; 
but  Junius  attacked  the  highest  and  most  powerful  characters 
in  the  realm,  the  sacred  institutions  of  the  law,  and  the  law- 
makers, under  a  mask,  and  within  the  circle  of  a  single  city, 
during  the  long  space  of  three  years,  when  none,  nor  all,  could 
strip  him  of  his  visor,  nor  even  trace  the  footsteps  of  the  letter- 
carrier  from  the  writer's  dwelling  to  the  printer's,  and  from  the 
printer  back  again  to  the  study  of  the  writer.  My  surprise  in- 
creases at  every  review  of  this  subject.  We  have  nothing  like 
it  in  history.  The  reverend  Doctor  Gauden  deceived  the 
British  public  in  his  Icon  Basilike,  by  telling  an  absolute  false- 
hood ;  yet  Charles  the  Second  rewarded  him  with  a  mitre,  for 
imposing  on  the  world  the  counterfeit  lucubrations  of  his  own 
brain  for  the  pious  effusions  of  his  unhappy  father. 

Besides  the  composition,  I  have  ever  considered  the  tran- 
scription and  transmission  of  the  Letters,  for  three  years,  with- 
out detection,  to  be  the  most  mysterious  and  puzzhng  circum- 
stances in  the  history  of  the  ghost  of  Junius  Brutus.  None 
but  a  man  of  the  first-rate  powers  and  first-rate  means  could 
have  carried  his  design,  as  Junius  did,  into  complete  effect. 

We  have  fixed  the  authorship  of  the  Letters  on  the  Earl  of 
Chatham,  and  have  rendered  it  highly  probable  by  the  paral- 
lel passages  from  his  speeches,  laid  side  by  side  with  corre- 


TRANSCRIPTION  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  THE  LETTERS.  361 

sponding  passages  from  tlie  Letters.  We  have  shown  the  mu- 
tual attachment  between  Chatham  and  Camden,  as  well  as  be- 
tween Junius  and  this  nobleman,  by  recording  the  unmingled 
approbation  of  him  by  both.  We  have  recalled  to  the  reader's 
mind  the  consimilarity  of  sentiment,  expressed  by  Junius  and  by 
Lord  Chatham,  as  to  the  great  learning  and  extraordinary  abili- 
ties of  Lord  Mansfield  ;  and  we  have  pointed  out  the  same  de- 
gree of  repulsion  in  both.  We  have  declared,  that  no  public 
character  had  such  strong  reasons  for  indignation  and  resent- 
ment towards  the  Duke  of  Bedford  as  had  Lord  Chatham  ; 
for  when  the  Duke  signed  the  articles  of  the  peace,  he  put  a 
match  to  the  combustibles,  that  had  been  three  years  collecting 
around  the  monument  which  Fame  had  erected  to  Pitt's  glory. 
We  have  exposed  the  chief  reasons  of  the  contempt  of  Ju- 
nius for  that  sham  minister,  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  but  we 
do  not  believe  he  was  so  bad,  or  so  weak  a  man,  as  he  is 
represented  by  that  violent  writer. 

We  ask  the  reader's  attention  to  the  anecdotes  of  General 
Lord  Amherst*  and  request  him  to  call  to  mind  the  history  of 
the  wars  and  conquests  in  America  from  1758  to  1761,  and 
the  narrative  of  the  dismission  of  Sir  JefFery  Amherst  from 
his  government  of  Virginia,  together  with  the  creation  of  a 
third  Secretary  of  State,  specially  made  for  the  subjugation 
of  America.  Does  not  this  concatenation  of  facts  corrobo- 
rate, if  not  substantiate  our  idea,  and  identify  Junius  with 
Chatham  ? 

Let  us  return  to  our  rallying  point,  and  see  if  our  great 
Statesman  had  qualities  and  faculties  needful  for  such  a  delicate 
task  as  writing  audacious  and  terrific  truths  on  the  interior 
walls  of  palaces.  The  North  Briton  says  of  him,  "  The 
sight  of  PitCs  mind  was  infinite.  His  schemes  were  to  af- 
fect, not  England,  not  the  present  age  only,  but  Europe 
and   posterity.     Wonderful  were   the   means   by   which   those 


*  The  present  Earl,  son  of  tiie  General,  is  named  William  Pill  Am- 
herst. 

46 


3G2  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

schemes  were  accomplished  ; — always  seasonable  and   always 
adequate."  * 

He  had  been,  from  early  life,  a  very  active  member  of  the 
House  of  Commons,  Paymaster-general,  and  Secretary  of 
State.  When  Prime  Minister  he  retained  the  Secretaryship, 
and,  what  was  very  extraordinary  indeed,  he  was  in  effect,  and 
to  all  purposes,  the  Board  of  Admiralty  within  himself;  having 
stipulated  with  George  the  Second,  thai  he  should  engross  the 
correspondence  with  the  officers  of  the  fleet  abroad  and  at 
home,  which  heretofore  appertained  to  the  board  at  large,  and 
that  his  orders  and  instructions  should  be  signed  by  the  Lords 
of  the  Admiralty  without  their  knowing  what  they  signed. 
Napoleon  himself  had  hardly  more  unfettered  power.  Hence 
it  was,  that  promptness,  nay,  rapidity,  marked  all  his  measures. 
Quick  and  fiery  in  his  temper,  he  was  yet  patient  when  he  di- 
rected his  mind  to  investigation  ;  and  then  he  adopted  the 
calm  and  deliberate  steps  of  the  mathematician  in  search 
of  truth,  which,  when  found,  he  proclaimed  in  the  thun- 
ders of  oratory,  and  dazzling  flashes  of  elocution.  Thus  he 
stood  before  the  collecdve  nation  an  object  of  the  highest  re- 
spect, and  of  dread  to  its  enemies.  It  is  to  this  extraordinary 
man  we  attribute  the  authorship  of  the  Letters  of  Junius, — a 
man,  of  whom  Earl  Waldegrave  (who  did  not  love  him)  says, 
"  He  has  the  finest  genius,  improved  by  study,  and  all  the 
ornamental  part  of  classical  learning.  He  has  a  peculiar  clear- 
ness and  facility  of  expression  ;  and  has  an  eye  as  significant 
as  his  words.  He  is  not  always  a  fair  or  conclusive  reasoner, 
but  commands  the  passions  with  sovereign  authority  ;  and  to 
inflame  or  captivate  a  popular  assembly  is  a  consummate  ora- 
tor. He  has  courage  of  every  sort,  cool  or  impetuous,  active 
or  deliberate.  At  present  he  is  the  guide  and  champion  of  the 
people.  He  is  imperious,  violent,  and  implacable  ;  impatient 
even  of  the  slightest  contradiction  ;  and,  under  the  mask  of 
patriotism,  has  the  despotic  spirit  of  a  tyrant. 

*  The  A''orih  Briton  was  written  in  Numbers,  like  the  Spedalor,  by 
various  hands. 


TRANSCRIPTION  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  THE  LETTERS.  363 

"  However,  though  his  political  sins  are  black  and  dangerous, 
his  private  character  is  irreproachable  ;  he  is  incapable  of  a 
treacherous  or  ungenerous  action  ;  and  in  the  common  offices 
of  life  is  justly  esteemed  a  man  of  veracity  and  a  man  of  honor. 

"  He  mixes  little  in  company,  confining  his  society  to  a 
small  juncto  of  his  relations,  with  a  kw  obsequious  friends,  who 
consult  him  as  an  oracle,  admire  his  superior  understanding, 
and  never  presume  to  have  an  opinion  of  their  own.* 

"  This  separation  from  the  world  is  not  entirely  owing  to 
pride,  or  an  unsociable  temper  ;  as  it  proceeds  partly  from  bad 
health  and  a  weak  constitution.  But  he  may  find  it  an  im- 
passable barrier  in  the  road  of  ambition  ;  for  though  the  mob 
can  sometimes  raise  a  minister,  he  must  be  supported  by  per- 
sons of  higher  rank,  who  may  be  mean  enough  in  some  par- 
ticulars, yet  will  not  be  the  patient  followers  of  any  man  who 
despises  their  homage  and  avoids  their  solicitations.  Besides, 
it  is  a  common  observation,  that  men  of  plain  sense  and  cool 
resolution  have  more  useful  talents,  and  are  better  qualified  for 
public  business,  than  the  man  of  the  finest  parts,  who  wants 
temper,  judgment,  and  the  knowledge  of  mankind.  Even  par- 
liamentary abilities  may  be  too  highly  rated  ;  for  between  the 
man  of  eloquence  and  the  sagacious  statesman  there  is  a  wide 
interval." 

We  set  a  high  value  on  this  character  of  Mr.  Pitt  writ- 
ten by  a  contemporary,  no  less  eminent  than  Earl  Walde- 
grare,  whose  grandmother  was  daughter  of  James  the  Second; 
an  accomplished  scholar  and  philosopher ;  and  selected  by 
George  the  Second  to  be  governor  of  his  grandson,  afterwards 
George  the  Third.  He  was  averse  to  the  post,  and  said  to 
the  aged  monarch,  "  Sire,  I  am  too  young  to  govern,  and  too 
old  to  be  p-overned.^^  But  he  was  constrained  to  submit  ;  and 
found,  as  he  feared,  that  he  could  not  acquire  the  confidence 
of  his  pupil  or  of  his  pupiVs  mother. 


*  Except  his  sister,  Mrs.  Jlnnt  Pitt. 


364      CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

Notwithstanding  the  slight  exceptions  scattered  here  and 
there  in  the  character  of  Mr.  Pitt,  Lord  Waldegrave  adds  what 
would  seem  to  sweep  them  all  away.  "  From  a  cornet  of  horse, 
then  his  only  subsistence,  in  less  than  twenty  years  he  has 
raised  himself  to  be  first  minister,  and  the  most  poiverful  sub- 
ject in  this  country.''''  "  The  masterly  characteristics  by  Lord 
Waldegrave  were  manifestly  intended,"  says  his  biographer, 
"  for  posterity  ;  "  and  his  admirable  Memoirs  look  like  it.* 

Such  a  man  was  Lord  Chatham  in  the  opinion  of  friends 
and  foes.  Yet  ambidextrous  as  he  was,  he  could  never  have 
written,  and  prepared  for  the  press,  the  Letters  in  question, 
without  the  aid  and  assistance  of  some  eye,  brain,  and  hand, 
beside  his  own.  It  is  impossible  he  could  have  effected  the 
task  alone.  Help  he  must  have  had  ;  confidence  he  must 
have  secured.  But  of  what  sort^  The  help  could  not  have 
been  derived  from  hired  people ;  from  any  pensioned  scribe, 
who  might  ever  be  detached  from  his  employer  by  disgust, 
harsh  treatment,  or  neglect.  I  cannot  admit  for  a  moment, 
that  his  amanuensis  could  be  bound  to  absolute  secrecy,  and 
such  a  secret  too,  by  any  chain,  either  iron  or  gold.  That  is 
but  pseudo-confidence  which  can  be  bought ;  for  whatever  can 
be  bought  may  be  sold.  Burke's  amanuensis  betrayed  him. 
JuNius's  never.  His  must  have  been  that  safe  and  faithful 
scribe  to  be  found  only  in  a  faithful  bosom  friend, — that  pearl 
of  great  price,  so  rare  and  so  valuable.  The  mere  surmise 
will  lead  us  to'  a  nearer  view  of  the  personage  so  often  men- 
tioned. Starting  with  this  potulatum  of  a  bosom  friend,  with 
caution  and  diffidence  we  approach  the  subject ;  yet  not  with- 
out a  hope  and  firm  belief,  that  we  shall  catch  a  glimpse  of 
that  great  and  substantial  blessing. 

*  Earl  Waldegrave  died  of  small-pox  in  March,  1763.  Without  the 
polish  or  servile  manners  of  a  court,  this  nobleman  was  greatly  esteem- 
ed for  his  probity,  benevolence,  and  literary  acquirements.  The  Duke 
of  Cumberland,  son  of  George  the  Second,  said,  that,  to  his  knowledge, 
death  itself  would  have  lieen  more  welcome  to  Lord  Waldegrave,  than 
any  union  with  Lord  Bute  or  Mr.  Fox.  lie  rejected  all  offers  of  em- 
ployment under  the  young  King. 


TRANSCRIPTION  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  THE  LETTERS.   365 

The  indispensably  requisite  amanuensis,  in  the  delicate  busi- 
ness before  us, — the  partner  in  the  vital  secret,  coidd  have  been 
none  else  than  another  self;  and  may,  if  rightly  considered,  veri- 
fy the  assertion  of  Junius,  when  he  said,  "  /  am  the  sole  de- 
pository of  my  own  secret.''^  Indeed  it  is  clear,  that  he  meant  it 
should  be  understood  in  a  qualified  sense,  from  what  immedi- 
ately precedes  it,  viz.  "  If  I  am  a  vain  man,  my  gratification 
lies  within  a  narrow  circle.'^  The  term  itself  has  here  a  plu- 
ral meaning,  intimating,  what  could  not  be  otherwise,  that  there 
were  some  ones  to  whom  the  secret  was  known.  This  idea 
is  confirmed  by  a  trifling  anecdote.  An  idle  letter  (to  Ju- 
nta), written  in  a  spirt  of  levity,  according  not  altogether 
with  the  serious  and  dignified  character  of  Junius,  he  wished 
therefore  to  obliterate  ;  and  he  writes  to  Mr.  Woodfall,  "  It 
was  written  against  my  own  opinion.  The  truth  is,  there  are 
people  about  me,  whom  I  wish  not  to  contradict,  and  ivho  woxdd 
rather  see  Junius  in  the  papers,  ever  so  improperly,  than  not 
at  all." 

The  important  question  is,  who  was  the  faithful  bosom 
friend,  or  the  confidential  friends,  forming  that  narrow  circle? 
Throughout  this  goodly  and  wondrous  fran)e  of  nature,  of 
which  we  ourselves  make  a  part,  every  generating  thing  is  sent 
forth  in  pairs.  No  one  thing  stands  alone.  There  is  indeed 
unity,  but  oneness  has  no  existence  this  side  the  eternal  world. 
I  leave  to  the  feeling  and  sagacity  of  each  reader,  whether  the 
first  impression  on  his  or  her  mind,  was  not  that  the  persons  about 
Junius,  whom  he  wished  not  to  contradict,  were  Women  ;  as- 
suming, as  we  do,  that  Chatham  was  the  man.  Name  or 
imagine  the  mortal  man,  if  you  can,  whom  William  Pitt  would 
hesitate  to  contradict,  if  he  urged  any  thing  against  his  opin- 
ion. Inflexible  in  his  own  will,  and  stubborn  as  a  rock  with 
men,  that  nobleman  was,  from  all  accounts,  a  pliant  domestic 
man.  But  who  could  bend  the  Statesman  ?  We  shall  relate 
what  we  have  learned  concerning  him,  without  lisping  a  word 
of  impartiality  or  partiality,  or  claiming  an  exemption  from  pre- 
judice, which  no  reader  of  common  sense  would  believe,  seeing 
every  hypothesis  is  stuck  pretty  full  of  both. 


566  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

We  have  said  that  Mr.  Pitt  married  the  sister  of  Richard 
Grenville,  Earl  Temple.  She  is  spoken  of  as  a  lady  of 
exemplary  goodness  and  cultivated  talents.  We  judge  of  her 
by  what  has  flowed  from  her  own  pen,  and  from  circumstan- 
tials. The  editor  of  the  Life  of  the  Right  Hon.  William  Pitt, 
Earl  of  Chatham,  published  by  Almon,  addressed  a  letter  to 
her  as  the  Dowager  Countess  of  Chatham,  in  1791,  when  she 
was  far  advanced  in  life,  and  accompanied  it  with  tlie  volumes. 
She  says  in  answer,  "  I  cannot  delay  desiring  you  to  accept 
of  my  sincere  thanks  for  this  mark  of  your  attention.  The 
sentiments  expressed  by  you  of  the  abilities  and  virtues  of  my 
late  dear  Lord,  are  a  sort  of  assurance  to  me,  that  I  shall  find 
his  character  and  conduct  painted  in  those  colors  that  suit  the 
dignity  and  wisdom  that  belonged  to  them."  In  the  same  let- 
ter she  utters  her  deep  regret  at  the  loss  experienced  by  her- 
self, her  country,  her  family,  and  friends.  If  this  should  be 
considered  as  the  formal  expression  of  a  bereaved  widow,  mere 
common-plac.3  language,  we  have  a  small  family-picture  by  her 
own  hand,  clear  from  any  thing  of  the  kind.  It  is  a  letter  to 
Dr.  Addington,  their  family-physician  and  particular  friend, 
and  has  special  reference  to  an  anecdote  which  excited  great 
public  attention  in  that  day  (1778.)  It  related  to  an  overture, 
said  to  have  been  made  from  the  Earl  of  Bute  to  the  Earl  of 
Chatham,  by  the  agency  of  Sir  James  Wright,  and  through  Dr. 
Addington  *  who  was  the  family-physician  to  all  three,  and 
whose  mind  and  time  were  much  given  to  politics.  The 
negotiation,  if  a  loose,  informal,  out-of-joint  conversation  could 
merit  that  name,  had  for  its  uhimate  object  the  return  of  Lord 
Chatham,  then  in  a  miseiable  state  of  health,  to  the  service  of 
his  country  as  Prime  Minister,  to  remedy,  if  possible,  the 
lamentable  condition  of  the  kingdom,  the  efforts  of  which  were 
unavailing,  and  its  arms  unsuccessful,  in  every  quarter  of  the 
globe.  Among  other  heart-sinking  calamities  was  the  disaster 
of  General  Burgoyne's  army,  who,  after  very  hard  fighting  and 

*  Father  of  the  Prime  Minister  of  that  name. 


TRANSCRIPTION  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  THE  LETTERS.    367 

repeated  defeats,  were  compelled  to  lay  down  their  arms  and 
surrender  to  the  x\merican  militia.  Upon  this  followed  the 
treaty  of  alliance,  offensive  and  defensive,  with  France,  and 
our  increasing  current  of  success  in  all  our  Southern  States  ; 
which  finally  led  to  the  capture  of  a  second  British  army  un- 
der the  counnand  of  Enrl  Coniivallis,  and  that  strong  flood 
of  feeling  which  followed  after  these  events  in  England  and 
in  America. 

In  this  deplorable  situation  of  affairs,  as  it  regarded  Britain, 
it  was  a  prevalent  opinion,  that  none  but  Lord  Chatham  could 
save  the  kingdom  from  utter  ruin.  Whatever  mortification  may 
pretend,  there  was  something  like  a  negotiation  contemplated, 
and  more  than  contemplated.*  The  sick  Lord  Chatham,  dis- 
gusted with  a  half-way,  gossipping  piece  of  business,  tried  to  put 
an  end  to  it  by  the  following  note  to  Dr.  Addington. 

"  Hayes,  February  1th,  [1778.] 
"  The  conversations,  which  a  certain  gentleman  [Sir  James 
Wright]  has  found  means  to  have  with  you,  are,  on  his  part, 
of  a  nature  too  insidious,  and  to  my  feelings  too  offensive,  to 
be  continued,  or  unrejected.  What  can  this  officious  emissary 
mean  by  all  the  nonsense  he  has,  at  times,  thrown  out  to  you  ? 
The  next  attempt  he  makes  to  surprise  friendly  integrity  by 
courtly  insinuation,  let  him  know  that  his  great  patron  [Lord 
Butel  and  your  village  friend  differ  in  this  ; — one  has  brought 
the  King  and  Kingdom  to  ruin  j  the  other  would  sincerely 
endeavour  to  save  it." 

This  note  was  followed  by  a  letter  from  Sir  James  Wright 
to  Dr.  Addington,  in  such  high  strains  of  respect  and  defer- 
ence for  Lord  Chatham,  as  seems  to  have  disarmed  the  noble 
sufferer  of  anger ;  as  appears  by  the  following  letter  from 
Lady  Chatham  to  Dr.  Addington.     This  is  the  smnWfamUy- 

*  The  author  was,  at  that  period  and  two  years  previous,  a  member 
of  Dr.  Fothergili'e  family. 


368  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

picture  ;  and  all  that  we  have  here  said  of  Lord  Bute,  Dr.  Ad- 
dington,  and  Sir  James  Wright,  is  but  the  frame  of  it. 


From  Lady  Chatham  to  Dr.  Addington. 

"I  write,  my  dear  Sir,  from  my  Lord's  bed-side,  who  has 
had  much  pain  all  last  night  from  gout  in  his  left  hand  and 
wrist.     The  pulse  indicates  more  pain  to  come. 

"  He  desires  me  to  express  for  him  the  true  sense  he  has  of 
all  your  very  friendly  attentions  in  this  very  delicate  and  criti- 
cal situation. 

"  The  gentleman's  letter,  which  you  transmit,  is  handsomely 
written,  and  sufficiently  explicit.  At  the  same  time  it  is  im- 
possible not  to  remark,  how  widely  it  differs  from  the  tenor  of 
some  of  the  intimations  conveyed  in  former  strange  conversa- 
tions to  you.  The  letter  now  before  him  is  written  also  with 
much  good  sense  and  candor,  as  coming  from  a  heart  touched 
with  the  extreme  dangers  impending  over  the  King  and  King- 
dom. Those  dangers  are  indeed  extreme,  and  seem  to  pre- 
clude all  hope. 

"  Hayes,  quarter  hefore  one,  February  9th,  1778."  * 

As  It  is  to  our  purpose  to  speak  of  this  noble  Lady,  let  us, 
with  respectful  steps,  approach  the  dwelling  of  the  supposed 
author  of  the  famous  Letters.  This  hallowed  retreat  is  situ- 
ated in  the  pleasant  village  of  Hayes,  sixteen  miles  from  Lon- 
don, where  shone,  in  dignified  retirement,  the  partner  of  the 
great  Statesman's  honors,  cares,  and  pains. f  Ol  this  excellent 
woman  the  Rev.  F.  Thackeray  says,  "  She  possessed  a  very 
powerful  understanding,  combined  with  great  feminine  deli- 
cacy. The  ease  and  spirit  with  which  her  Ladyship  wrote, 
rendered  her  letters  very  delightful  to  her  friends,  and  enabled 
her  to  assist  Lord  Chatham,  during  his   attendance   in  Parlia- 

*  Lord  Chatham  died  three  months  after. 

f  From  a  private  letter  to  Woodfall,  March  5,  1772,  we  infer,  that 
Junius  resided  in  the  country. 


TRANSCRIPTION  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  THE  LETTERS.  359 

ment,  or  his  attacks  of  the  gout,  in  answering  many  of  his  cor- 
respondents." 

Such  domestic  aids  in  the  most  secret  and  delicate  tran- 
sactions of  a  minister's  life,  are  less  rare  in  Europe  than  here, 
where,  as  yet,  our  government  has  few  or  no  secrets  ;  and 
diplomacy  itself  but  little  occasion  for  exercising  those  subtle 
powers  of  intrigue,  stratagem,  and  honorable  artifice,  com- 
mon in  most  countries. 

We  have  a  delightful  picture  of  the  amiable  influence  of  the 
female  character  on  the  life  and  conduct  of  a  public  man, 
brought  down  to  us  through  Roman  history.  It  has  been  ju- 
diciously re-touched  by  the  Spectator  (See  No.  525.),  and 
relates  to  Pliny,  who  is  there  described  as  one  of  the  finest 
gentlemen  and  politest  writers  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived. 
It  is  contained  in  a  letter  to  Hispulla,  his  wife's  aunt,  who 
brought  her  up.  Pliny,  speaking  of  his  wife,  says,  "  I  am 
sure  it  will  be  a  pleasure  to  you  to  hear  that  she  proves  wor- 
thy of  her  father,  worthy  of  you,  and  of  your  and  her  ances- 
tors. Her  ingenuity  is  admirable  ;  her  frugality  extraordinary. 
She  loves  me,  the  surest  pledge  of  her  virtue  ;  and  adds  to 
this  a  wonderful  disposition  to  learning,  which  she  has  acquired 
from  her  affection  to  me.  She  reads  my  writings,  studies 
them,  and  even  gets  them  by  heart.  You'd  smile  to  see 
the  concern  she  is  in  when  I  have  a  cause  to  plead  ;  and  the 
joy  she  shows  when  it  is  over.  She  finds  means  to  have  the 
first  news  brought  her  of  the  success  I  meet  with  in  court, — 
how  I  am  heard,  and  what  decree  is  made.  If  I  recite  any 
thing  in  public,  she  cannot  refrain  from  placing  herself  pri- 
vately in  some  corner  to  hear,  where,  w^ilh  the  utmost  delight, 
she  feasts  upon  my  applause.  Sometimes  she  sings  my  verses, 
and  accompanies  them  with  the  lute,  without  any  master,  ex- 
cept love,  the  best  of  instructers.  From  these  instances,  I 
take  the  most  certain  omens  of  our  perpetual  and  inci-casing 
happiness,  since  her  affection  is  not  founded  on  my  youth  and 
person,  which  must  gradually  decay  ;  but  she  is  in  love  with 
the  immortal  part  of  ine, — my  glory  and  reputation.  Nor  in- 
47 


370  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

deed  could  less  be  expected  from  one  who  had  the  happiness 
to  receive  her  education  from  you.  who,  in  your  house,  was 
accustomed  to  every  thing  that  was  virtuous  and  decent,  and 
even  began  to  love  me  by  your  recommendation.  For,  as  you 
had  always  the  greatest  respect  for  my  mother,  you  were 
pleased,  from  my  infancy,  to  form  me,  to  commend  me,  and 
kindly  to  presage  I  should  be  one  day  what  my  wife  fancies  I 
am.  Accept,  therefore,  our  united  thanks ;  mine,  that  you 
have  bestowed  her  on  me ;  and  hers,  that  you  have  given  me 
to  her,  as  a  mutual  grant  of  joy  and  felicity." 

Here  is  a  beautiful  family-picture,  painted  about  eighty 
years  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  by  a  contemporary  of  Tacitus, 
a  subject  of  Trajan,  and  a  particular  pupil  of  (^uintilian, — the 
all  accomplished  Pliny ;  and  it  may  be  justly  admired  as  a 
faithful  delineation  of  friendship,  tenderness,  true  love,  and 
constancy. 

What  forbids  our  tranferring  this  charming  domestic  scene 
to  the  quiet  habitation  of  Lord  and  Lady  Chatham  at  Hayes  ? 
and  with  felicitous  circumstantials,  which  neither  Roman  nor 
Grecian  ever  enjoyed  ? 

Lord  Chatham,  besides  an  accomplished  spouse,  was  blessed 
with  a  sister,  Mrs.  Anne  Pitt,*  who  is  represented  by  Mr. 
Burke  as  a  lady  of  extraordinary  powers  of  mind,  a  very  keen 
disputant  even  with  her  brother,  and  remarkable  for  richness 
and  variety  of  eloquence  in  discourse,  resembling  that  for  which 
he  was  famous,  and  to  a  degree  even  to  astonish  the  modern 
Cicero,  who  expressed  his  regret  that  he  had  not  committed 
to  paper  some  striking  specimens  of  her  brilliancy. f  Com- 
mon as  exaggeration  is  in  giving  characters,  we  have  no  sus- 
picion of  it  here,  seeing  the  celebrated  Lord  Bolingbroke  was 
equally  enraptured  with  the  mental  powers  of  Anne  Pitt.     His 

*  Mrs.  Anne  Pitl  died  unmarried,  in  1789.  In  England  they  call 
single  women,  of  an  advanced  age,  Mrs.-,  and  not  Miss,  as  we  do  in 
America.  We  apply  that  girlish  epithet  to  a  maiden  lady  of  ninety  or 
a  hundred. 

f  See  r  '  i"  Burke. 


TRANSCRIPTION  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  THE  LETTERS.  37 1 

Lordship  had  the  highest  opinion  of  the  genius  of  Mr.  Pitt 
as  a  man,  and  of  his  sister  as  a  woman.  The  former  he  termed 
sublimity  Pitt,  and  the  latter  divinity  Pitt.  Horace  Walpole 
says,  in  a  letter  to  the  Earl  of  Hertford  in  April,  1765,  "  Mr. 
Caraman  is  agreeable,  informed,  and  intelligent.  He  supped 
at  your  brother's  t'other  night,  after  being  at  Mrs.  Anne  Pitt's. 
As  the  first  curiosity  of  foreigners  is  to  see  Mr.  Pitt,  and  as 
that  curiosity  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  points  in  the  world 
to  gratify,  he  asked  me  if  Mr.  Pitt  was  like  his  sister.  I  told 
him,  Q^u^ils  se  ressembloient  comme  deux  gouttes  de  feu^ 

This  highly  gifted  lady  is  mentioned  by  Lord  Chesterfield, 
who  says  to  his  son,  "  The  fine  Mrs.  Pitt,  who,  it  seems,  saw 
you  often  at  Paris,  speaking  of  you  the  other  day,  said  in 
French,  ***********.  .  Whether  it  is  that  you  did 
not  pay  the  homage  due  to  her  beauty,  or  that  it  did  not  strike 
you  as  it  does  others,  I  cannot  determine  ;  but  I  hope  she  had 
some  other  reason  than  truth  for  saying  it.  I  will  suppose 
that  you  did  not  care  a  pin  for  her ;  but,  however,  she  surely 
deserved  a  degree  of  propitiatory  adoration  from  you,  which 
I  am  afraid  you  neglected." 

Mrs.  Anne  Pitt  was  maid  of  honor  to  Queen  Caroline, 
and  privy-purse  to  the  Princess  Dowager  of  Wales.  She 
held  these  courtly  stations  when  her  brother  was,  at  one  and 
the  same  time,  Secretary  of  State  and  Prime  Minister  to  King 
George  the  Second,  and  afterwards  under  his  grandson  George 
the  Third. 

As  the  historian  is  at  three  thousand  miles'  distance  from  the 
great  city  of  the  King,  may  he  not  be  allowed  to  guess,  that 
the  Pitt  family  had  the  facility  of  knowing  the  doinestic 
scenes  of  the  royal  family  almost  as  well  as  their  own,  and 
the  more  so  from  the  publicity  of  a  royal  palace  compared 
with  that  of  subjects.*     Junius  mentions  the  variations  of  the 


*The  following  paragraph  appeared  in  Woodfall's  paper,  Dec. 6, 1771. 
"  We  have  the  pleasure  to  assure  the  public,  from  the  most  undoubted 
authority,  tliat  the  repeated  accounts  of  her  Royal  Highness,  tho 
Princess  Dowager  of  Wales,  being  very  ill,  and   her  life  in  great  dan* 


372  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

King's  temper  and  consequent  diet,  and  appears  to  know  every 
thing  concerning  him. 

If  we  renounce  the  idea  of  that  sort  of  domestic  aid  and  assis- 
tance here  suggested,  we  are  aground, — unable  to  stir  an  inch ; 
nay,  we  are  confounded,  deeming  it  an  impossibihty,  or  next 
to  it,  that  an  insulated  individual,  separated,  through  fear  of 
detection,  from  every  one  else,  should  be  able  to  compose,  re- 
ply, and  rejoin,  as  Junius  did,  with  the  necessary  copying  and 
every  needful  preparation  for  the  press,  with  the  very  nice 
business  of  sure  and  safe  transmission,  without  the  kind  of  help 
we  have  suggested.  With  it  all,  the  difficulty  is  great,  very 
great,  considering  the  power  of  those  whom  Junius  had 
the  audacity  to  attack.  That  the  writer  should  be  able  to  pre- 
serve an  uninterrupted  chain  of  epistles  of  such  a  peculiar 
character,  and  even  advertise,  that  such  and  such  letters  to 
Lord  Mansfield  should  appear  on  a  particular  day,  and  be 
able  to  keep  his  promise  undetected,  is  a  surprising  thing 
on  any  hypothesis,  and  absolutely  wonderful  upon  any  hy- 
pothesis but  the  one  we  have  advanced.  It  is  conceivable 
that  a  lonely  individual  might  write  and  stick  up  an  epigram 
or  lampoon  every  week  for  years,  in  different  parts  of  an  im- 
mense city,  without  an  accomplice  ;  but  not  a  consecutive  series 
of  libellous  essays,  attacking  the  sovereign,  the  head  of  the  ju- 
diciary, the  army,  very  powerful  individuals,  and,  amidst 
threats,  setting  at  defiance  the  ability  of  them  all  to  pull  off  his 
mask,  or  to  draw  him  from  his  dark  recess  into  light  and  punish- 
ment. Such  a  correspondence  between  the  writer  and  a  dis- 
tant printer  could  not  have  been  carried  on  in  the  city  of 
Paris,  where  the  police  resembles  the  discipline  of  a  camp  ; 
whereas  London  had  no  police  until  Mr.  Colquhoun  led  the 
way  to  something  like  one.     London,   before   that  period,  was 

ger,  are  entirely  false."  Junius  thereupon  says,  at  the  close  of  a  let- 
ter to  {he  Printer,  four  days  after  ;  "  What  do  you  mean  by  affirming 
that  the  Doivager  is  better  ?  /  tell  you  that  she  suckles  toads  from 
morning  till  night.''''  [She  died  four  weeks  after  of  a  shocking  cancer 
in  the  breast,  having  used  the  quack-remedy  here  mentioned.] 


TRANSCRIPTION  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  THE  LETTERS.  373 

governed  pretty  much  like  our  cities  in  America  by  the  man-' 
ners  of  the  people.  Allowin;^  for  this  freedom  from  espionage, 
the  safe  transmission  of  the  letters  betokens  a  management  be- 
yond a  common  character.  "  The  difficulty  of  corresponding," 
says  Junius  to  Woodfall,  "  arises  from  situation  and  necessity, 
to  which  we  must  submit.  Your  letter  was  twice  refused  last 
night,  and  the  waiter  as  often  attempted  to  see  the  person  who 
sent  for  it."  (March  3  and  5,  1772.)  We  attribute  the  complete 
success,  in  all  these  difficulties,  to  a  man  with  a  mind,  whose 
sight  was  infinite,  whose  schemes  were  always  seasonable  and 
always  adequate,  and  whose  power  of  secrecy  was  deemed 
wonderful,  while  he  penetrated  the  secrets  of  others,  from  the 
monarch,  with  his  floating,  morbid  humors,  to  his  page ;  and 
from  the  wretched  Princess  Dowager  with  her  odious  quack 
remedy  to  the  varied  cookery  of  her  perturbed  son.  The  man, 
to  whom  we  attribute  the  Letters,  was  singular  and  remarkable 
for  his  knowledge  of  minutia,  while  his  august  mind  and 
manner  overawed  majesty.  It  was  well  known,  that  George 
the  Second  felt  royalty  so  impaired  in  his  presence,  that  he 
conspired  to  remove  him  in  order  to  be  relieved  from  his  su- 
periority. This  could  not  be  concealed  from  Mr.  Pitt,  who, 
after  being  called  to  the  helm  a  second  time,  preserved  that 
uniform  and  undeviating  course  of  etiquette,  which  gained  the 
heart  of  the  aged  Hanoverian,  and  preserved  it  to  the  last 
hour  of  his  life.  Something  of  the  same  overshadowing 
influence  was  felt  by  the  more  familiar  and  gentleman- 
like George  the  Third.  In  the  memorable  audience  at  the 
Queen's  palace  in  1763,  which  lasted  three  hours,  it  was 
generally  supposed,  that  the  great  master  of  eloquence  over- 
powered the  judgment  of  the  King,  and  led  it  captive;*  for, 

*  Dr.  Franklin  has  remarked,  that,  in  his  conversations  with  Lord 
Chatham  on  the  subject  of  liis  plan  for  settling  tiie  troubles  in  Ameri- 
ca, he  was  so  full  and  diffuse,  that  he  could  not  interrupt  him  with  a 
remark,  nor  go  through  half  of  his  own  memorandums,  lie  adds, 
"He  is  not  easily  interrupted,  and  I  had  such  pleasure  in  hearing  him, 
that  I  found  little  inclination  to  interrupt  him."  Such  is  the  power  of 
a  superior  mind  sublimed  by  eloquence. 


374  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

at  a  second  audience,  two  days  after,  the  King  retraced  his 
steps,  and  excused  himself  from  following  the  advice  given, 
with  saying,  that  his  word  was  passed,  and  his  honor  concern- 
ed,— a  fresh  evidence  of  that  secret  influence  complained  of  in 
the  earliest  part  of  the  reign  of  that  unhappy  monarch. 

If  we  weigh  what  has  been  said,  to  whom  but  to  this  great 
Statesman,  consummate  orator,  and  remarkably  gifted  man, 
can  we  attribute  the  golden  pages  of  Junius  ? — for  such  they 
truly  are  compared  with  any  prose  writings  in  our  language. 
Unique  as  was  the  manner,  doctrine,  style,  and  temper  of  Lord 
Chatham,  yet  he  resembles  the  man  behind  the  curtain,  more 
than  any  other  character  hitherto  mentioned  as  the  supposed 
author  of  the  Letters  j  and  the  parallel  passages,  cited  from 
the  speeches  of  the  one  and  the  writings  of  the  other,  seem  to 
put  it  beyond  doubt. 

Lord  Chatham  was  a  domestic  man,  made  so  by  his  arthritic 
infirmities  ;  so  was  Cardinal  Richelieu.  Both  were  abstracted 
from  the  fashionable  world.  Both  discarded  ceremonial  le- 
vees, dinners,  and  suppers, — those  moths  of  time,  health,  and 
study.  Both  were  great  ministers  ;  both  brilliant  in  literature. 
Thus  situated  and  circumstanced,  and  withdrawn  from  Parlia- 
ment, who  so  likely  to  give  vent  to  his  mixed  feelings,  per- 
sonal and  patriotic,  and  who  more  favorably  situated  for  it, 
than  Lord  Chatham  ?  No  one  will  suppose  me  to  insinuate, 
that  he  needed  any  one  to  help  him  think,  or  to  express  what 
he  thought.  We  only  insist,  that,  crippled  and  enfeebled,  it  was 
his  happy  lot  to  be  blest  with  two  very  able  amanuenses, — one 
of  them  another  self,  a  pearl  of  great  price, — and  the  other,  his 
brilliant  sister,  a  second  jewel  in  his  Urim  and  Thummim. 
From  such  a  pectorale  sparks  of  light,  truth,  and  intelligence 
must  have  been  elicited,  in  their  solemn  retirement,  amid  sober 
reflections  on  the  varied  scenes  of  their  past  honorable  lives. 
"  It  is  gratifying  to  reflect,"  says  the  biographer  of  Chatham,* 
"  that  he,  who  had  devoted  his  life  to  the   severest  application 

*  Thackeray. 


TRANSCRIPTION  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  THE  LETTERS.   375 

in  the  public  cause,  should  have  had  so  accomplished  and  in- 
teresting a  family,  to  soothe  his  declining  years,  and  to  exhila- 
rate his  hours  of  relaxation.  Few  men  were  able  to  enjoy 
these  blessings  with  a  jiister  sense  of  their  value.  Ambition," 
says  he,  "  may  have  indurated  some  feelings  of  his  heart  in  his 
intercourse  with  the  political  world  ;  but  his  conduct,  in  every 
domestic  relation,  was,  throughout  his  life,  most  exemplary  and 
delightful." 

We  submit,  with  peculiar  pleasure,  this  subject  of  aid  from 
the  female  head,  heart,  and  hand,  of  the  indoor  circle  of  post- 
meridian felicity,  to  the  feelings  and  judgment  of  the  happy  in 
this  favored  land,  with  only  one  remark,  viz.  If  daugh- 
ters be  educated  in  hterature  equally  with  sons,  they  write  as 
well,  and  often  better,  inasmuch  as  they  perceive  quicker  and 
discriminate  more  nicely,  have  a  more  delicate  taste,  and  a 
more  correct  judgment  respecting  the  consistency  and  harmony 
of  things  in  social  life.  With  more  patience  than  men,  they  are 
better  disposed  to  that  refinement  of  humanity,  defined  com- 
placency, or  an  inclination  that  busies  itself  in  pleasing  antici- 
pations, especially  where  there  is  the  familiarity  of  intimacy. 
They  generally  feel  a  deeper  interest,  a  greater  ambition  in 
aiding  their  male  connexions,  than  men  feel  towards  one  anoth- 
er, especially  in  literary  matters,  in  which  many  of  them  are 
keen  critics  and  admirable  polishers,  after  the  hammering, 
rasping,  and  filing  of  a  stronger  masculine  hand.  The  women 
of  France  seem  to  have  put  all  competition  at  defiance ; 
not  but  what  England,  Switzerland,  and  America  have  jewels 
of  the  same  kind,  but  occasion  has  too  rarely  produced  thera 
to  view. 

We  reiterate,  perhaps  to  tediousness,  that  the  transcription 
of  the  Letters  of  Junius  could  never  have  been  made  by  the 
hand  of  a  hireling,  but  by  the  hand  of  affection,  by  one  em- 
barked in  the  same  frail  vessel,  upon  a  deep  and  boundless 
ocean  with  a  threatening  sky,  where  one  fate  was  to  befall 
both.  Conceive,  thoughtful  reader,  a  great  man  of  Lord 
Chatham's  matchless  genius,   rare  acquirements,   and  unique 


376  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

Style  of  eloquence,  that  exhausted  the  richness  of  our  language, 
sore  with  keen  excitement  from  extreme  ill  usage,  working 
up  the  bullion  of  his  rich  mind  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection 
as  it  regards  form,  and  assisted  by  ^^ people  about  him  whom  he 
would  wish  not  to  contradict,''''  for  the  highest  possible  polish. 
We  need  not  suppose  such  aids  took  the  pen  of  original  com- 
position, but  to  converse,  debate,  surmise,  suggest,  and 
ci'iticize,  and  by  these  and  other  kindred  means,  call  forth 
the  strong  and  various  powers  of  the  great  original  himself. 
It  is  probable,  nay,  it  is  certain,  that  through  co-operating  in- 
tellects, and  by  similar  means,  came  forth  into  mimic  life,  the 
greatest  wonders  of  Grecian  sculpture.  We  repeat  it, — it  is 
tlie  decree  of  Heaven,  and  the  undeviating  order  of  nature, 
that  no  one  thing  originates  and  proceeds  alone. 

Junius  complained  sorely,  that  no  one  assisted  him  in  the 
newspapers,  blinding  himself  with  poring  over  papers  for  au- 
thorities,— that  he  was  left  to  do  every  thing.  Hence  he  w^as 
compelled  to  make  his  left  hand  aid  his  right  under  the  signature 
oiYiiit.0- Junius  ;  and,  before  that,  under  the  signature  o{  Do- 
mitian,  T^alerius,  Brutus,  Lucius,  and  Atticus,  to  prepare  the 
way  for  the  entrance  on  the  stage  of  Junius  himself. 

The  sort  of  domestic  aid  and  domestic  interest  in  the  labors 
of  a  public  man  is  not  so  rare  as  many  imagine.  In  that 
pious  forgery,  entitled  Icon  Basilike,  palmed  on  the  world 
as  the  production  of  Charles  the  First  in  his  deepest  trou- 
bles, the  real  author.  Dr.  Gauden,  could  not  carry  on  the 
deception  without  domestic  help.  That  supererogant  di- 
vine, not  contented  with  the  self-satisfaction  of  increasing 
vastly  the  worshippers  of  "  the  royal  martyr,"  and  enjoy- 
ing disinterested  benevolence,  very  eagerly  sought  a  meaner 
reward  on  the  restoration  of  the  Second  Charles,  by  declar- 
ing that  that  very  popular  book,  however  pious  the  language, 
was  given  to  an  admiring  public  by  "  a  lying  spirit."  To  ob- 
tain pay  for  it.  Dr.  Gauden  writes  to  the  Secretary  of  State, 
Sir  Edward  Nicholas,  thus  :  "  The  book  and  the  figure  were 
wholly  and  only  my  invention,  making,  and  design,  in  order  to 


TRANSCRIPTION  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  THE  LETTERS.  377 

vindicate  the  king's  wisdom,  honor,  and  piety.  My  wife,  in- 
deed, was  conscious  of  it ;  and  had  a  hand  in  disguising  the 
letters  of  that  copy  which  I  sent  to  the  King  in  the  Isle  of 
Wight,  by  favor  of  the  Marquis  of  Hertford."  * 

Here  the  lying  spirit,  though  immortal, f  could  not  prevail 
without  domestic  help.  Milton  exposed  the  deception  ;  but 
it  was  not  the  fashion  of  the  day  to  regard  the  opinion  of  a  re- 
publican. Lord  Clarendon  betrayed  his  knowledge  of  the 
fraud,  by  a  private  letter  to  Bishop  Gauden  upon  the  Icon 
Basilike,  and  by  his  total  silence  on  the  subject  in  his  history 
of  "  the  nineteen  years'  rebellion."  J 

In  order  to  effect  certain  patriotic  purposes  through 
Alderman  Sawbridge,  Junius  wrote  several  private  letters 
to  Mr.  Wilkes ;  two  of  considerable  length,  urging  this 
celebrated  man  to  a  more  magnanimous  line  of  conduct 
towards  the  worthy  Alderman,  than  Wilkes  seemed  capable 
of.  Mr.  Charles  Butler  once  sat  down  with  his  friend 
Wilkes  to  examine,  with  great  and  lawyer-like  attention,  those 
epistles,  with  a  view  of  tracing  the  author  of  them.  Mr.  But- 
ler, in  his  pleasant  Reminiscences,  says,  that  the  same  hand- 
writing marks  all  of  them,  except  the  Letter  to  the  King,  and 
it  is  like  that  which  well-educated  ladies  wrote  about  the  be- 
ginning of  the  century  [written  1780]  ;  viz.  a  large  open  hand, 
regular,  a|)proaching  to  the  Italian  ;  that  Mr.  Wilkes  had  a 
card  of  invitation  to, dinner  from  old  Lady  Temple,  written  in 
her  own  hand  ;  and  on  comparing  it  with  Junius's  Letters,  they 
thought  there  was  some  resemblance  between  them.  The 
Letter  to  the  King  was  in  a  hand-writing  perfectly  different ; 
a  very  regular,  staid  hand,  with  no  difference  between  the 
hair-stroke  and  the  body  of  the  letters  [as  if  first  written  with 
a    lead-pencil,    and    traced    over   with    ink.]      He   says    that 

*  Edinburgh  Review  for  June,  1856.     Art.  Icon  Basilike. 

f  "  On  eagle's  wings  immortal  scandals  fly." — Dryden. 

t  Dr.  Johnson,  in  his  Dictionary,  quotes  from  the   Icon  Basilike  as 
the  words  of  King  Charles ;  and  Dr.  Webster,  perpetuates   the  decep- 
tion in  his  more  valuable  Dictionary. 
48 


378  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

the  lines  of  the  letters  were  very  even  ;  with  very  few  blots, 
erasures,  or  marks  of  hurry.  Mr.  Butler  adds,  "  that  the 
letters,  generally,  if  not  always,  were  sent  in  an  envelope 
(which  was  then  by  no  means  general  as  it  now  is),  and  in  the 
folding  up  and  the  direction  of  the  letter,  we  thought  we  could 
see  marks  of  the  writer's  habit  of  folding  and  directing  official 
letters."  In  a  little  volume  of  letters,  wrhten  by  the  Earl  of 
Chatham  to  his  nephew  Lord  Canielford,  a  youth  at  College, 
one  dated  from  the  pay-office,  April  15,  1755,  concludes  thus. 
"  Inclose  your  letters  in  a  cover  ;  it  is  more  polite."  From 
all  which  we  learn,  that  the  use  of  an  envelope,  though  rare  at 
that  day,  was  habitual  with  Lord  Chatham  and  vt^ith  Junius. 
Lawyers  know  the  weight  of  circumstantial  evidence.  Mr. 
Wilkes  said,  that  the  manner  in  which  Junius  corrected  the 
printed  sheets  showed,  that  he  was  accustomed  to  such  an  em- 
ployment, and  had  a  familiar  use  of  the  marks  of  printers  in 
correcting  proof-sheets. 

"  We  thought,^''  says  Mr.  Butler,  "Aw  high-wrought  pane- 
gyric of  Lord  Chatham  ivas  ironical."  So  that  it  never 
came  into  their  heads  as  into  ours,  that  his  Lordship  wrote  it 
himself. 

We  understand  that  Robert  Wood,  Esq.,  a  gentleman  well 
known  for  his  learned  and  valuable  publications,  was,  for  a  long 
series  of  years,  private  secretary  to  Mr.  Pitt,  and  afterwards  of- 
ficial under-secretary  while  Lord  Chatham  was  in  the  govern- 
ment. Dr.  Franklin  mentions  the  same  gentleman  in  his 
Memoirs,  and  says,  "When  I  came  to  England  in  1757,1 
made  several  attempts  to  be  introduced  to  Lord  Chatham,  then 
Mr.  Pitt,  at  that  time  first  minister,  on  account  of  my  Penn- 
sylvania business,  but  without  success.  He  was  then  too  great 
a  man,  or  too  much  occupied  in  affairs  of  great  moment.  I 
was  therefore  obliged  to  content  myself  with  a  kind  of  non- 
apparent  and  unacknowledged  communication  through  Mr. 
Potter  and  Mr.  Wood,  his  secretaries,  who  seemed  to  culti- 
vate an  acquaintance  with  me  by  their  civilities  ;  and  drew 
from  me  what  information  I  could  give  relative  to  the  Ameri- 


TRANSCRIPTION  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF   THE  LETTERS.  37O 

can  war,  with  my  sentiments,  occasionally,  on  measures  that 
were  proposed  or  advised  by  others  ;  which  gave  me  the  op- 
portunity of  recommending  and  enforcing  the  utility  of  con- 
quering Canada.  [Between  1757  and  1758.]  I  afterwards 
considered  Mr.  Pitt  as  inaccessible." 

Mr.  Butler  has  an  interesting  Chapter  on  the  Letters  of  Ju- 
nius.    Near  the  close  of  it  is  this  paragraph. 

"  Mentioning,  in  one  of  his  letters  to  Woodfall,  the  edition, 
which  that  gentlemen  then  projected  of  his  Letters,  Junius 
says,  '  When  the  book  is  finished,  let  me  have  a  set  hound 
in  vellum,  gilt  and  lettered,  as  handsome  as  you  can, — the 
edges  gilt ; — let  the  sheets  he  well  dried  hefore  hinding.^  " 

"  Who,"  says  Mr.  Butler,  "  is  the  fortunate  possessor  of 
these  two  vellum  volumes  ? — Tlie  Reminiscent  knows  as  little 
as  the  rest  of  the  world, — but  thinks  it  was  not  unknown  to 
the  founder  of  a  noble  house,  to  which  the  public  owes  an 
edition  of  Homer,  which  does  the  nation  honor."  Thus  far 
Mr.  Butler. 

Now  who  was  the  editor  of  this  highly  extolled  edition  of 
Homer  ?  He  was  Rohert  Wood,  Lord  Chatham's  private 
secretary,  just  mentioned.  Who  was  the  founder  of  a  noble 
house  to  whom  the  public  is  indebted  for  that  learned  work  } 
It  was  the  grand  nephew  of  Lady  Chatham,  and  places  the 
vellum  volumes,  about  where  we  had  long  since  conjectured  they 
might  be  found, — in  the  Grenville  Family,  a  mere  sketch 
of  which  we  have  presumed  to  make  and  hold  up  to  our 
readers. 

Four  years  after  this  was  written,  there  appeared  the  follow- 
ing article  in  one  of  our  newspapers,  copied  from  a  London 
paper  called  "  The  Glohe,^^  viz. 

"  Five  letters  are  deposited  in  the  archives  of  the  Grenville 
family  at  Stowe,  lohich  establish,  beyond  the  possibility  of 
doubt,  the  real  author  of  Junius.  This  eminent  individual 
was  politically  connected  with  Mr.  George  Grenville,  the  grand- 
father of  the  present  Duke  of  Buckingham,  from  ivhom  these 
autograph  proofs    have   descended    to    the  present  possessor. 


380  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

The  venerable  Statesman,  nearly  allied  to  the  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, has  requested  the  discovery  should  not  be  published 
during  his  life-time.  It  is,  hoivever,  confidently  asserted,  that, 
in  all  the  controversies  relatins;  to  these  celebrated  Letters, 
the  author  has  not  been  named." 

After  reaching  an  age  when  that  great  comfort  of  human 
life,  vanity,  is  commonly  evaporated,  if  I  have  made  a  dis- 
covery by  pursuing  the  road  of  patient  induction,  while  others 
have  failed  in  their  search  by  wandering  upon  a  fenceless  com- 
hion,  I  hope  to  be  allowed  the  enjoyment  of  its  few  remaining 
drops  ;  for  during  forty  years  I  have  preserved  a  steady  opin- 
ion, and  often  expressed  it,  that  no  man  could  have  felt  and 
written  like  Junius,  save  William  Pitt,  Earl  of  Chatham. 
He  was  acquainted  with  the  deep  disorder  in  the  state  of 
Britain ;  and  to  cure  it,  like  a  skilful  physician,  used  only 
Herculean  remedies. 

Englishmen  !  erect  a  Temple  to  your  Magnus  APOLLO  ! 
lest  we  Americans  get  the  start  of  you  ! 


On  the  seventh  of  April,  1778,  Lord  Chatham,  in  a  very 
feeble  state,  of  health  was  led  into  the  House  of  Peers  by  his 
son  William,  and  his  son-in-law.  Lord  Mahon.  He  was 
dressed  in  a  rich  suit  of  black  velvet,  and  covered  up  to  his 
knees  in  flannel.  He  looked  like  a  dying  man,  yet  never  was 
seen  a  figure  of  more  dignity.*  He  appeared  like  a  being  of 
superior  species.  The  Lords  stood  up,  and  made  a  lane  for 
him  to  pass  to  his  seat,  whilst,  with  a  gracefulness  of  deport- 
ment, for  which  he  was  so  eminently  distinguished,  he  bowed 
to  them  as  he  proceeded.  Having  taken  his  seat,  he  listened 
to  the  speech  of  the  Duke  of  Richmond  with  the  most  pro- 
found attention.  The  Duke,  at  the  close  of  the  grand  com- 
mittee of  inquiry,  which  sat  during  the  greater  part  of  the  ses- 
sion, moved  an  address  to  the  throne,  recapitulating  the  ex- 
penses, misconduct,  and  losses  of  the  war ;   intreating  the  Sov- 

*  See  Thackeray,  and  Seward's  Anecdotes. 


TRANSCRIPTION  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF  THE  LETTERS.  381 

ereign  to  dismiss  his  ministers  ;  advising  him  to  withdraw  all 
his  force  s  by  sea  and  land  from  the  revolted  provinces,  and  to 
adopt  amicable  means  only  to  recover  their  friendship,  at  least, 
if  not  their  allegiance.  This  question  of  independence  was 
enough  to  kindle  all  Lord  Chatham's  English  enthusiasm. 

After  Lord  Weymouth  had  spoken  against  the  address, 
Lord  Chatham  rose  with  slowness  and  difficulty  from  his 
seat,  leaning  on  his  crutches,  and  supported  by  his  two  rela- 
tions. He  took  one  hand  from  his  crutch  and  raised  it,  cast- 
ing his  eyes  towards  Heaven,  and  said  "/  think  God  that  I 
have  been  enabled  to  come  here  this  day,  to  perform  my  duty, 
and  to  speak  on  a  subject  which  is  so  deeply  impressed  on  my 
mind.  I  am  old  and  infirm,— have  one  foot, — tnore  than  one 
foot, — in  tlie  grave.  I  have  risen  from  my  bed,  to  stand  up  in 
the  cause  of  my  country, — perhaps  never  again  to  speak  in 
this  House !  " 

The  reverence,  the  attention,  the  stillness  of  the  House 
were  here  most  affecting  ;  had  any  one  dropped  a  handker- 
chief, the  noise  would  have  been  heard. 

At  first,  Lord  Chatham  spoke  in  that  low  and  feeble  tone 
which  is  characteristic  of  severe  indisposition  ;  but  as  he  grew 
warm,  his  voice  rose,  and  became  as  harmonious  as  ever ; 
oratorical  and  affecting,  perhaps  more  so  than  at  any  former 
period.  He  recounted  the  whole  history  of  the  American 
war,  the  measures  to  which  he  had  objected,  and  all  the  evil 
consequences  which  he  had  foretold ;  adding,  at  the  end  of 
every  period,   "  And  so  it  provedJ*^ 

In  one  part  of  his  speech,  he  ridiculed  the  apprehension  of 
an  invasion,  and  then  recalled  the  remembrance  of  former  in- 
vasions. "  A  Spanish  invasion,  a  French  invasion,  a  Dutch 
invasion,  many  noble  Lords  must  have  read  in  history  ;  and 
some  Lords  (looking  sternly  at  Lord  Mansfield,*)  may  re- 
member a  Scotch  invasion. 

*  Chatham   retained   his   antipathy  towards  Mansfield  to    his  last 
breath ! 


382  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

"  I  rejoice,  my  Lords,  that  the  grav^e  has  not  closed  upon 
me,  that  Lam  still  alive  to  lift  up  my  voice  against  the  dismem- 
berment of  this  ancient  and  most  noble  monarchy  !  Pressed 
down  as  I  am  by  the  hand  of  infirmity,  I  am  little  able  to  as- 
sist my  country  in  this  most  perilous  conjuncture  ;  but,  my 
Lords,  while  I  have  sense  and  memory  I  will  never  consent  to 
deprive  the  royal  offspring  of  the  House  of  Brunswick,  the 
heirs  of  the  Princess  Sophia,  of  their  fairest  inheritance.  I 
will  first  see  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  Bishop  of  Osnaburg, 
and  the  other  rising  hopes  of  the  royal  family,  brought  down  to 
the  committee,  and  assent  to  such  an  alienation.  Where  is 
the  man  that  will  dare  to  advise  it?  My  Lords,  his  Majesty 
succeeded  to  an  empire  as  great  in  extent  as  its  reputation  was 
unsullied.  Shall  we  tarnish  the  lustre  of  this  nation  by  an  ig- 
nominious surrender  of  its  rights  and  fairest  possessions  ? 
Shall  this  great  kingdom,  that  has  survived,  whole  and  entire, 
the  Danish  depredations,  the  Scottish  inroads,  and  the  Nor- 
man conquest ;  that  has  stood  the  threatened  invasion  of  the 
Spanish  armada,  now  fall  prostrate  before  the  House  of  Bour- 
bon ?  Surely,  my  Lords,  this  nation  is  no  longer  what  it  was  ! 
Shall  a  people,  that,  seventeen  years  ago,  was  the  terror  of  the 
world,  now  stoop  so  low  as  to  tell  its  ancient,  inveterate  ene- 
my, '  Take  all  we  have,  only  give  us  peace  ? '  It  is  im- 
possible ! 

"  I  wage  war  with  no  man  or  set  of  men.  I  wish  for  none 
of  their  employments  ;  nor  would  I  co-operate  with  men  who 
still  persist  in  unretracted  error ;  or  who,  instead  of  acting  on 
a  firm,  decisive  line  of  conduct,  halt  between  two  opinions, 
where  there  is  no  middle  path.  In  God's  name,  if  it  is  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  declare  either  for  peace  or  war,  and  the 
former  cannot  be  preserved  with  honor,  why  is  not  the  latter 
commenced  without  hesitation  ?  I  am  not,  I  confess,  well  in- 
formed of  the  resources  of  this  kingdom,  but  I  trust  it  has  still 
sufficient  to  maintain  its  just  rights,  though  I  know  them  not. 
But,  my  Lords,  any  state  is  better  than  despair.  Let  us,  at 
least,  make  one  effort ;    and  if  we  must  fall,   let  us  fall  like 


men 


I  » 


TRANSCRIPTION  AND  TRANSMISSION  OF   THE  LETTERS.  383 

In  the  course  of  his  speech  in  reply  to  Lord  Chatham,  the 
Duke  of  Richmond  said,  that  "  he  did  not  doiiht  but  the 
name  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham  (he  begged  to  apologize  for 
mentioning  his  Lordship  by  name)  would  rouse  tlie  spirit  of 
the  nation.  But  that  name,  great  and  mighty  as  it  was,  could 
not  gain  victories  without  an  army,  without  a  navy,  and  without 
money.  If  a  large  fleet  of  French  ships  met  a  few  of  ours, 
did  the  noble  Earl  think,  that  merely  telling  them  that  the 
Earl  of  Chatham  had  the  conduct  of  public  affairs,  would  pre- 
vent us  from  being  beaten  ?  If  the  fleet  passed  our  ships,  and 
the  French  effected  an  invasion,  did  the  noble  Earl  imagine, 
that  merely  telling  the  invaders  that  Lord  Chatham  was  the 
minister,  and  that  he  had  roused  the  spirit  of  the  nation, 
would  induce  them  to  re-imbark  and  abandon  their  purpose?" 
During  this  and  some  other  parts  of  the  Duke's  clumsy 
speech.  Lord  Chatham  indicated,  in  countenance  and  gesture, 
symptoms  of  emotion  and  disgust.  When  the  Duke  of  Rich- 
mond sat  down.  Lord  Chatham  made  an  eager  effort  to  rise, 
as  if  laboring  with  some  great  idea,  and  impatient  to  give  ut- 
terance to  his  feelings.  But  the  body  was  unable  to  sustain 
the  energies  of  the  mind.  After  repeated  attempts  to  retain 
his  erect  position,  he  suddenly  pressed  his  hand  to  his  great 
heart  and  fell.  He  lingered  to  the  eleventh  of  the  month  fol- 
lowing, when  he  died  at  his  seat  in  Hayes. 

His  firmness  of  mind  was  remarkable.  On  his  death-bed 
he  said  to  his  son,  who  was  about  to  depart  for  Gibraltar,  but 
was  unwilling  to  leave  his  father,  "  Go,  my  son,  go  where 
your  country  calls  you  ;  let  her  engross  all  your  attention  ; 
spare  not  a  moment,  ivhich  is  due  to  her  service,  in  weeping 
over  an  old  man  loho  will  soon  he  no  more.^^ 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  THE  THIRD. 


Although  Junius  observed  proper  respect  for  the  Throne, 
it  is  manifest  that  he  entertained  a  personal  disUke  to  the  King. 
This  is  a  delicate  subject ;  yet  we  must  touch  it.  The  official 
character  of  George  the  Third  and  the  history  of  the  Ameri- 
can revolution  and  independency,  are  so  interwoven,  that  we 
cannot  separate  them,  without  making  an  unseemly  rent  in  the 
web  of  our  narrative.  One  reign  has  passed  away  since  that 
monarch's  death,  and  another  has  just  commenced.  This 
allows  us  to  speak  of  him  with  the  same  freedom  as  of  any 
crowned  head  that  preceded  him. 

Junius  disdains  to  disguise  his  contempt  of  the  Duke  of 
Grafton,  his  antipathy  to  Lord  Mansfield,  and  his  abhorrence 
of  the  characters  of  the  Duke  of  Bedford  and  of  Lord  Bar- 
rington  ;  and  though  he  tries  to  throw  a  veil  over  his  dislike 
of  the  King,  we  now  and  then  discover  the  truth  under  some 
corners  of  it,  which  sudden  gusts  of  resentment  blow  aside. 
Like  Junius  and  like  Lord  Chatham,  we  Americans  al- 
ways maintained  a  theoretical  reverence  for  the  Sovereign, 
even  from  the  year  1766  to  1776.  Then,  indeed,  what  had 
been,  for  ten  years,  dammed  up,  broke  loose  and  inundated 
loyalty  at  once  among  those  in  authority,  while  the  people 
as  usual   observed  no  degrees  of  comparison  in  their  expres- 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      335 

s'ons  of  regal  criminality.  Adhering  conscientiously  to  their 
.  ational  cliaracter,  they  spoke  daggers,  but  used  none.* 

It  was  the  political  character  and  conduct  of  George  the 
Third  which  gave  birth  to  Junius.  Had  his  uncle,  the  Duke 
of  Cumberland,  ascended  the  throne,  the  Princess  Dowager 
and  her  son  George  would  have  dwelt  in  comparative  privacy, 
and  neither  Junius,  nor  his  harbinger,  "  The  North  Briton," 
would  have  ever  appeared,  nor  the  name  of  John  Wilkes  have 
ever  been  heard  beyond  the  smoke  of  his  chimney. 

The  private  character  of  George  the  Third  was  almost  in 
every  respect  unexceptionable.  He  was  correct  in  les  mceurs,  and 
distinguished  in  les  bienscances  ;  his  court  was  chaste,  his  queen 
discreet  and  remarkably  circumspe  t,  and  their  children  rigid- 
ly governed  as  regarded  their  religious  creed,  and  in  the  Ger- 
man system  of  etiquette.  There  was  an  easy,  gentleman-like 
demeanor  in  the  King,  that  hardly  ever  betrayed  a  consciousness 
of  his  very  high  station  ;  which  is  remarkable,  as  in  his  national 
government  and  political  measures  and  conduct,  there  was 
something  like  an  unbending  self-sufficiency,  and  unremitting 
adherence  to  maxims  of  state,  partly  German  and  partly 
Scotch,  imbibed  at  an  early  period  of  life,  before  experience 
had  time  to  judge  of  and  correct  them. 

The  English  people  were  delighted  with  the  novel  circum- 
stance of  having  a  native-born  King  "  to  go  in  and  out  before 
them  ; "  and  the  Scotch  were  greatly  pleased  at  seeing  one  of 
their  own  noblemen  the  acknowledged  favorite  of  the  court, 
and  another  at  the  head  of  the  judiciary.  The  whole  realm 
appeared  to  rejoice  that  they  had  at  length  an  Englishman  on 
the  throne,  not  tied  to  Hanover  by  a  natural  feeling,  or  to 
France,  Italy,  or  Germany,  by  uxoriousnens.  The  public 
magnified  every  praiseworthy  act  in   the  young  monarch,  such 

*  During  a  perio.1  of  great  excitement  an(l  resentment  in  Boston 
against  Sir  Fran  is  Barnard^  one  of  the  En;;lish  Commissioners  asked 
the  Governor  if  he  was  not  afraid  to  walk  tlie  streets  and  over  his 
farm  unarmed  and  alone.  He  replied,  "  Not  in  the  least.  Tke  Jimeri- 
cans  are  not  a  bloody-minded  people." 
49 


386  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

as  making  the  jiidges  independent  of  the  crown,  and  hberating 
a  poor  Roman  Catholic  from  a  long,  rigorous  imprisonment 
for  the  crime  of  worshipping  God  according  to  the  dictates  of 
his  own  conscience.  They  considered  this  just  and  this  mer- 
ciful deed  as  a  sure  presage  of  a  wise  and  glorious  reign.  The 
novelty-loving  English  were  enraptured  with  their  affable  King  ; 
his  levee  being  such  a  contrast  to  that  of  his  grandfather, 
wiiich  had  some  resemblance  to  a  lion's  den.  In  comparing 
the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  George  the  Third  with  the  very 
sad  scenes  which  attended  its  latter  years,  one  of  the  historians 
of  his  reign*  quotes  a  passage  from  Gray''s  "Bard,"  as  appli- 
cable to  the  splendor  of  its  dawn  and  "  its  subsequent  fatal 
indiscretions." 

"  Fair  laughs  the  morn,  and  soft  the  zephyr  blows, 

While  proudly  riding  o'er  the  azure  realm 

In  gallant  trim  the  gilded  vessel  goes ; 

Youth  at  the  prow,  and  pleasure  at  the  helm  ; 

Regardless  of  the  sweeping  whirlwind's  sway, 
That,  hush'd  in  grim  repose,  expects  his  evening  prey." 

If  this  were  the  impression  of  the  wavering  public  re- 
specting the  character  of  George  the  Third,  some  men  of  su- 
perior sagacity  differed  from  them.  Lord  Camden,  then  At- 
torney-General Pratt,  said  to  George  the  Second's  physician, 
about  four  months  after  the  intoxication  of  the  coronation  was 
past,  '■'■  I  see  already  that  this  loill  he  a  weak  and  inglorious 
reign."  It  was  occasionally  whispered,  that  the  King  was  very 
obstinate,  and  would  be  influenced  by  none  but  his  mother 
and  Lord  Bute.  An  opinion  prevailed,  that  this  Scotch  noble- 
man suggested  political  opinions  and  conduct  to  the  Dowager, 
and  she  to  her  son  ;  but  this  was  hardly  correct.  She  was  the 
source  of  the  baleful  influence  of  which  patriotism  complained. 
Bute  imbibed  her  opinions  and  enforced  her  directions.  She  was 
undoubtedly  a  shrewd  and  knowing  woman  ;  yet  Earl  Walde- 
grave,  possibly  a  little  blinded  by  disgust,  denies  to  her  superior 
talents  or  more  than  an  ordinary  understanding,  while  her  polit- 

*  Belsham. 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      387 

ical  notions  were  more  becoming  a  Polish  or  Hungarian  noble- 
man, than  the  instructress  of  a  British  prince.  She  incessantly 
inculcated  on  her  son, — "  Be  King,  and  be  not  shackled  by  the 
Whigs,  as  was  your  grandfather  ; "  and  George  never  forgot 
the  lesson. 

John  Nichnlls,  Esq.,  a  distinguished  member  of  Parliament, 
and  son  of  Dr.  F.  Nicholls,  physician  to  George  the  Second, 
and  autlior  of  "  RecoUeciions  and  Reflections,  Personal  and 
Political,  as  connected  with  Public  Affairs,  dui-ing  the  Reign 
of  George  the  Third,"  after  saying  that  the  King  was  sober, 
temperate,  of  good  domestic  habits,  addicted  to  no  vice,  and 
swayed  by  no  passion,  adds,  "  that  the  whole  tenor  of  his  life 
has  justified  the  impression  that  he  was  not  a  weak  man  ;  but 
that  his  objects  were  little  and  injudiciously  chosen ;  and  that, 
so  far  from  his  reign  being  marked  by  favoritism,  he  has  never 
appeared  to  entertain  kindness  for  any  minister  employed,  ex- 
cept for  the  Earl  of  Bute  ;  and  that  because  he  was  educated 
by  his  mother."  She  had  formed  her  ideas  of  sovereign 
power  at  the  court  of  her  father.  In  Saxe-Gotha,  the  Sove- 
reign's personal  wishes  and  opinions  are  to  be  obeyed,  and  he 
is  his  own  minister  ;  in  Great  Britain,  the  Sovereign  is  to 
choose  for  his  ministers  those  whom  he  thinks  best  qualified  to 
advise  measures  beneficial  to  the  country.  If  he  does  not  ap- 
prove of  the  measures  they  recommend,  he  may  remove  his 
ministers  and  appoint  others  ;  but  whatever  measures  are  car- 
ried into  effect,  the  advisers  ought  not  only  to  be  responsible, 
but  distinctly  known  and  recognised  as  the  advisers.  This  is  not 
an  opinion  which  has  been  tbeoretically  adopted  by  those  who 
have  treated  of  the  English  constitution  ;  it  has  been  explicitly 
declared  in  Parliament.  It  completely  negatives  the  idea  of 
the  King  being  his  own  minister.  The  sentiment,  which  the 
Princess  Dowager  had  most  anxiously  impressed  on  the  King's 
mind  was  this ;  that  he  should  be  his  own  minister ;  that 
he  should  vigilantly  observe  every  attempt  of  his  ministers  tq 
assume  a  control  over  him,  and  use  his  endeavours  to  prevent 
it.     The  Princess  Dowager  was  led    to    enforce    this    senti- 


388  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

ment  on  the  mind  of  her  son,  not  only  from  the  nnanner  in 
which  she  had  seen  sovereign  power  exercised  in  her  father's 
court,  but  also  from  the  control  which  she  had  seen  exercised 
by  the  Pelham  party  over  George  the  Second.  The  wish  to 
be  his  own  minister,  and  to  exercise  his  power  personally,  was 
the  leading  feature  in  George  the  Third's  character  through 
his  whole  reign.  It  influenced  his  domestic  as  well  as  his  po- 
litical conduct.  There  does  not  appear  any  interval,  in  which 
this  sentiment  was  suspended. 

We  now  clearly  understand  the  remarks  of  Junius,*  when 
he  says,  that  "  Few  nations  are  in  the  predicament  that  we 
are,  to  have  nothing  to  complain  of  but  the  filial  virtues  of  our 
Sovereign.  Charles  the  First  had  the  same  implicit  attach- 
ment to  his  spouse." — "In  respect  to  her  Royal  Highness,  I 
shall  deliver  my  sentiments  without  any  false  tenderness  or  re- 
serve. I  consider  her  not  only  as  the  original  creating  cause 
of  the  shameful  and  deplorable  condition  of  this  country,  but 
as  a  being,  whose  operation  is  uniform  and  permanent,  who 
watches,  with  a  kind  of  providential  malignity,  over  the  work 
of  her  hands,  to  correct,  improve,  and  preserve  it.  If  the 
strongest  appearances  may  be  relied  on,  this  lady  has  now 
brought  her  schemes  to  perfection.  Every  office  in  govern- 
ment is  filled  with  men  who  are  known  to  be  her  creatures,  or 
by  mere  ciphers  incapable  of  resistance.  Is  it  conceivable, 
that  any  thing  less  than  a  determined  plan  of  drawing  the 
power  of  the  crown  into  her  own  hands,  could  have  collected 
such  an  administration  as  the  present  ?  Who  is  Lord  North  ? 
The  son  of  a  poor  unknown  Earl,  who,  four  years  ago,  was  a 
needy  commissioner  of  the  treasury  for  the  benefit  of  a  sub- 
sistence, and  who  would  have  accepted  a  commission  of  hack- 
ney coaches  upon  the  same  terms.  The  politics  of  Carlton- 
house,  finances  picked  up  in  Mr.  Grenville's  ante-chamber, 
and  the  elocution  of  Demosthenes,  endeavouring  to  speak  plain 
with  pebbles  in  his  mouth,  form  the  stuffing  of  that  figure  which 

*  DoMiTiAN,  January  17,  1771,  recognised  by  Junius. 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.  389 

calls  itself  ministery  [What  is  here  said  of  Lord  North  is, 
be  sure,  lampoonical,  but  not  a  word  impeaching  his  character 
as  an  honorable  and  able  man.]  Of  the  Dowager,  Junius 
furtherniore  remarks,  that,  "  Gifted  as  she  is,  she  could  hard- 
ly fail  of  success  [in  preventing  war  with  Spain],  if  the  quar- 
rels of  nations  bore  any  resemblance  to  domestic  fends,  or 
conld  be  conducted  upon  the  same  principles.  The  genius  of 
Queen  Elizabeth  united  the  nation,  collected  the  strengdi  of 
the  people,  and  carried  it  forward  to  resistance  and  victory. 
When  the  demon  of  discord  sits  at  the  helm,  what  have  we  to 
expect  but  distraction  and  civil  war  at  home,  disgrace  and  in- 
famy abroad  ?  " 

Oliver  Cromwell,  Frederic  of  Prussia,  and  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  were  their  own  mmisters,  and  well  they  might  be  ; 
but  for  George  the  Third  to  undertake,  as  in  1764,  the  kingly 
power  personally,  showed  the  folly  of  his  German  instructress, 
and  the  weak  judgment  of  the  man.  Hence  we  account  for 
his  extreme  pertinacity  in  the  attempt  to  tax  these  colonies 
without  their  consent,  after  such  a  profound  lawyer  as  Lord 
Camden  and  such  a  consummate  politician  as  Lord  Chatham 
had  solemnly  declared,  that  neither  the  King  nor  the  Parlia- 
ment, nor  all  three  together,  had  a  legal  right  to  do  so.  The 
stamp  act  w'as  undoubtedly  the  favorite  measure  of  the  King, 
and  not  of  George  Grenville,  whom  he  dismissed,  because  he 
found  him  not  sufficienily  subservient  to  all  his  American  views; 
he  discarded  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham  because  he  repealed 
the  stamp  act,  and  took  into  his  service,  as  minister,  the  more 
pliant  Duke  of  Grafton,  who,  it  was  given  out  at  court,  was  to 
act  under  the  guidance  of  Lord  Chatham,  but  who  was  ac- 
tually found  willing  to  leave  him  and  pursue  the  advice  of  the 
secret,  irresponsible  cabinet,  in  which  Mr.  Jenkinson,  Lord 
Bute's  quondam,  private  secretary,  had  more  power  than 
the  ostensible  minister.  But  when  his  majesty  found  that 
the  great  lawyer,  his  most  obedient  friend.  Lord  Mansfield, 
could  give  him  neither  clear  law  nor  precedent  for  taxing  an 
English  subject  without  his  consent,  he  had  recourse  to  craft ; 


390  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

but  the  great  master  of  it,  Charles  Townsend,  made  but  a 
bunghng  piece  of  work  in  forcing  a  mixture  of  tea  and  pain- 
ters' colors  down  the  throat  of  nauseated  America.  Then 
came  force  with  all  his  terrors, — fire  and  sword,  blood  and 
ashes.  The  fight-loving  Scotchmen  shouted  for  war,  and  one 
of  them,  not  satisfied  with  the  usual  instruments  of  it,  most  loy- 
ally invoked  starvation  !  * 

Not  only  the  scattered  remnants  of  the  old  Tory  faction  glad- 
ly rallied  to  the  cause,  but  the  veteran  and  faithful  band  of 
placemen,  pensioners,  and  bribed  representatives  came  smiling 
in  as  volunteers.  This  will  surprise  no  man  ;  but  that  a  great 
majority  of  the  clergy  of  the  Episcopal  Anglican  church  should 
hasten  to  rally  under  the  banner  of  a  deluded  King,  busy,  vin- 
dictive, and  blind  to  consequences,  mistaking  obstinate  inflexi- 
bility for  dignity,  is  a  matter  for  surprise  and  mortification. 
We  could  bear  unmoved  the  abuse  of  Lords  Suffolk,  Gower, 
and  Sandwich,  by  returning  contempt  for  contempt ;  but  to  be 
stigmatized,  from  the  sacred  desk,  as  a  herd  of  fanatics  and 
hypocrites,  and  called  Purita.is  by  w^ay  of  reproach, — a  term 
more  hateful  to  the  high  church  than  infidel  or  atheist, — was 
more  than  surprising  ;  it  was  shocking.  It  was  somewhat  so, 
as  far  as  they  dared,  in  this  country.  The  virulent  language 
used  at  that  time  against  the  colonies,  at  the  court-end  of  Lon- 
don, at  Oxford,  and  Edinburgh,  was  in  the  same  illiberal,  an- 
ti-Christian style. f  The  period  referred  to  was  when  Bur- 
goyne's  fine  army  was  about  embarking  for  America,  in  the 
highest  flow  of  spirits  and  the  utmost  glee,  like  a  hunting  party 
with  the  best  omens  of  a  fine  chase  ! 

Distrusting  my  own  feelings,  on  such  heart-moving  topics,  I 
turn,  whenever  I  can,  to  the  opinions  of  the  wise,  great,  and 
impartial,  neither  British  nor  American.  Can  I  go  much 
higher  than  that  of  Frederic,  the  renowned  King  of  Prussia, 
distinguished  among  monarchs,  as  a  Hero,  Philosopher,  and 
Statesman  .'' 

*  Wedderburne,  the  vilifier  of  Franklin  before  the  privy  council. 
f  The  author  was,  at  that  time,  in  the  way  of  seeing  and  hearing 
what  he  here  relates,  in  England  and  in  Scotland. 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      391 

"  England,"  says  he,  "  at  this  period,  had  involved  herself 
in  a  war  with  her  colonies,  undertaken  in  the  spirit  of  despot- 
ism, and  conchicted  in  that  of  folly.  It  was  the  Scotchman, 
Bute,  who  still  governed  the  King,  and  directed  the  councils 
of  the  kingdom.  Like  one  of  those  mahgnant  spirits,  who  are 
perpetually  talked  of,  and  never  seen,  he  enveloped  himself  in 
profound  darkness,  whilst,  by  means  of  his  secret  insti'uments 
and  emissaries,  he  moved  the  whole  political  machine  at  his 
pleasure.  His  system  was  that  of  the  ancient  Tories,  who 
maintained  the  unlimited  power  of  the  Crown  to  be  necessary 
to  the  public  welfiire.  Haughty  and  harsh  in  his  deportment, 
little  solicitous  as  to  the  selection  of  the  means  which  he  em- 
ployed in  the  accomplishment  of  his  purposes,  his  obstinacy 
could  be  exceeded  only  by  his  indiscretion  ;  a  civil  list  of  one 
million  scarcely  sufficed  to   gratify  the  venality  of  Parliament. 

"  The  English  nation,  degraded  by  its  Sovereign,  ap- 
peared to  have  no  will  separate  from  that  of  the  court.  But, 
as  if  this  was  not  enough,  the  minister,  Lord  Bute,  engaged 
the  King  to  attempt  an  arbitrary  taxation  of  the  American  colo- 
nies, at  once  to  augment  his  revenues  and  to  establish  a  prece- 
dent which  might,  at  a  future  time,  be  imitated  in  Great 
Britain.  The  Americans,  whom  the  court  had  not  deigned  to 
corrupt,  *  opposed  themselves  openly  to  these  imposts,  so  con- 
trary to  their  charters,  their  customs,  and  to  the  liberties  which 
they  had  enjoyed  uninterrupted  since  their  first  establishment. 
A  wise  government  would  have  hastened  to  appease  these 
growing  troubles,  but  the  court  of  London  acted  upon  other 
principles.  The  rigor  and  violence  of  their  proceedings  com- 
pleted the  alienation  of  the  Americans.  A  Congress  was 
convened  at  Philadelphia,  in  which  it  was  determined  to 
shake  off  the  English  yoke ;  and  from  this  time  we  see 
Great  Britain  engaged  in  a  ruinous  war  with  her  own  colonies. 
France,  the   perpetual   rival  of    England,  saw    with    pleasure 

*They  tried  to  corrupt  Samuel  Adams  and  a  few  others,  and  suc- 
ceeded only  with  Benedict  Arnold. 


392  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS   LETTERS. 

these  civil  commotions,  and  secretly  encouraged  the  Ameri- 
cans to  defend  their  rights  against  the  despotism  wliich  George 
the  Third  was  desirous  to  establish,  by  holding  out  to  tliem  a 
prospect  of  future  succours."  * 

We  rejoice  in  being  able  to  adduce  the  staid  opinion  of  one 
of  the  wisest  and  greatest  monarchs  of  the  age  upon  the  con- 
duct of  George  the  Third  towards  the  North  American  Colo- 
nies. Speaking  of  France,  during  this  quarrel  with  America, 
the  King  of  Prussia  says,  "  Strong  in  her  alliance  with  Spain, 
and  in  the  assistance  thence  to  be  derived,  she  was  watching 
the  moment  to  fall,  like  a  falcon,  upon  her  prey,  and  avenge 
herself  upon  Great  Britain,  for  the  disasters  she  had  suffered 
during  the  preceding  war.  England  was,  at  this  time,  under 
the  YOKE  of  the  Tories,  engaged  in  a  ruinous  contest,  which 
augmented  the  national  debts  thirty-six  millions  of  crovv'ns  per 
annum.  For  the  purpose  of  striking  a  blow  upon  her  right 
arm  with  her  left,  she  exhausted  all  her  resources,  and  ad- 
vanced with  hasty  steps  to  her  decline  and  fall.  Her  ministers 
accumulated  faults  ;  but  of  all  these  the  greatest  was  the  war 
with  America,  from  which  no  possible  advantage  could  result. 
She  had  needlessly,  and  without  reason,  embroiled  herself  with 
all  the  surrounding  powers  ;  and  to  her  own  misconduct  only 
could  England  ascribe  that  state  of  desertion  and  general  aban- 
donment in  which  she  now  found  herself."  f 

In  November,  1777,  when  a  flattering  address  to  the  King 
was  under  debate.  Lord  Chatham  said,  "  My  Lords,  this  is  a 
perilous  and  tremendous  moment !  It  is  not  a  time  for  adula- 
tion. The  smoothness  of  flattery  cannot  now  avail,  cannot 
save  us  in  this  rugged  and  awful  crisis.  It  is  now  necessary  to 
instruct  the  Throne  in  the  language  of  truth." — "  The  extra- 
ordinary preparations  of  the  House  of  Bourbon,  by  land  and 
sea,  from  Dunkirk  to  the  Straits — the  seas  swept  by  Ameri- 
can  privateers — our   channel  trade   torn  to   pieces  by  them  ! 

*  O  uvr.  de  Frederic  III,  Tome  VI. 

t  CEuvr.  de  Frederic  III,  Tome  IV.  pp.  164,  165. 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      393 

In  this  complicated  crisis  of  danger,  weakness  at  home,  and 
calamity  abroad,  terrified  and  insulted  by  the  neighbouring 
powers,  unable  to  act  in  America,  or  acting  only  to  be  de- 
stroyed, where  is  the  man  with  the  forehead  to  promise  or  hope 
for  success  in  such  a  situation  ?  You  cannot  conciliate  Ameri 
ca  by  your  present  measures  ;  you  cannot  subdue  her  by  your 
present  or  by  any  measures.  What  then  can  you  do  ?  You 
cannot  conquer,  you  cannot  gain,  but  you  can  address  ;  you 
can  lull  the  fears  and  anxieties  of  the  moment  into  an  igno- 
rance of  the  danger  that  should  produce  them.  But,  my 
Lords,  th-e  time  demands  the  language  of  truth  :  we  must  not 
now  apply  the  flattering  unction  of  servile  compliance,  or 
blind  complaisance.  In  a  just  and  necessary  war,  to  main- 
tain the  rights  or  honor  of  my  country,  I  would  strip  the  shirt 
from  my  back  to  sup()ort  it.  But  in  such  a  war  as  this,  un- 
just in  its  principle,  impracticable  in  its  means,  and  ruinous  in 
its  consequences,  I  would  not  contribute  a  single  effort,  nor  a 
single  shilling. 

"  My  Lords,  I  have  submitted  to  you,  with  the  freedom 
and  truth  which  I  think  my  duty,  my  sentiments  on  your 
present  awful  situation.  I  have  laid  before  you  the  ruin  of 
your  power,  the  disgrace  of  your  reputation,  the  pollution  of 
your  discipline,  the  contamination  of  your  morals,  the  compli- 
cation of  calamities,  foreign  and  domestic,  that  overwhelm 
your  sinking  country.  Your  dearest  interests,  your  own  lib- 
erties, the  Constitution  itself  totters  to  the  foundation.  All  this 
disgraceful  danger,  this  multitude  of  misery,  is  the  monstrous 
offspring  of  this  unnatural  war.  We  have  been  deceived  and  de- 
luded too  long  :  let  us  now  stop  short :  this  is  the  crisis  —  may 
be  the  only  crisis,  of  time  and  situation,  to  give  us  a  possibility 
of  escape  from  the  fatal  effects  of  our  delusions.  But  if,  in  an 
obstinate  and  infatuated  perseverance  in  folly,  we  meanly  echo 
back  the  peremptory  words  this  day  presented  to  us,  nothing 
can  save  this  devoted  country  from  complete  and  final  ruin. 
We  madly  rush  into  multiplied  miseries,  and  confusion  worse 
confounded. 

50 


394  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

"Is  it  possible,  can  it  be  believed,  that  ministers  are  yet  blind 
to  this  impending  destruction?  —  I  did  hope,  that,  instead  of 
this  false  and  empty  vanity,  this  overweening  pride,  engender- 
ing high  conceits  and  presumptuous  imaginations — that  min- 
isters would  have  humbled  themselves  in  their  errors,  would 
have  confessed  and  retracted  them,  and  by  an  active,  though 
a  late  repentance,  have  endeavoured  to  redeem  them.  But, 
my  Lords,  since  they  had  neither  sagacity  nor  foresight, 
neither  justice  nor  humanity,  to  shun  these  oppressive  calami- 
ties ;  since  not  even  severe  experience  can  make  them  feel, 
nor  the  imminent  ruin  of  their  country  awaken  them  from 
stupefaction,  the  guardian  care  of  Parliament  must  interpose." 

In  November,  1777,  than  which  no  session  of  Parliament 
since  the  Revolution  of  1688,  teemed  with  events  more  awful 
to  England,  the  King  from  his  throne  said, — 

"  It  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  me  that  I  can  have  recourse  to 
the  wisdom  of  my  Parliament  in  this  conjuncture,  when  the 
continuance  of  the  rebellion  in  North  America  demands  our 
most  serious  attention.  The  powers  which  you  have  entrusted 
me  with,  for  the  suppression  of  this  revolt,  have  been  faiihfully 
exerted  ;  and  I  have  a  just  confidence  that  the  conduct  and 
courage  of  my  officers,  and  the  spirit  and  intrepidity  of  my 
forces,  both  by  sea  and  land,  will,  under  the  blessing  of 
Divine  Providence,  be  attended  with  important  success  : 
but  I  am  persuaded  that  you  will  see  the  necessity  of  pre- 
paring for  such  further  operations  as  the  contingencies  of  the 
war,  and  the  ohstinacy  of  the  rebels  may  render  expedient ; 
and  if  I  should  have  occasion  to  increase  them,  by  contracting 
any  new  engagements,  I  rely  on  your  zeal  and  public  spirit  to 
enable  me  to  make  them  good. 

"  I  receive  repeated  assurances  from  foreign  powers  of  their 
pacific  dispositions.  My  own  cannot  be  doubted." — "  I  will 
steadily  pursue  the  measures  in  which  we  are  engaged  for  the 
re-establishment  of  that  constitutional  subordination,  which, 
with  the  blessing  of  God,  I  will  maintain  through  the  several 
parts  of  my   dominions  :    but  I  shall   ever  be  watchful  for  an 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      395 

opportunity  of  putting  a  stop  to  the  effusion  of  the  blood  of  my 
subjects,  and  the  calamities  which  are  inseparable  from  a  state 
of  war.  And  I  still  hope,  that  the  deluded  and  unhappy  multi- 
tude will  return  to  their  allegiance  ;  and  that  the  remembrance 
of  what  they  once  enjoyed,  the  regret  for  what  they  have  lost, 
and  the  feelings  of  what  they  now  suffer,  under  the  arbitrary 
tyranny  of  their  leaders,  will  rekindle  in  their  hearts  a  spirit  of 
loyalty  to  their  sovereign,  and  of  attachment  to  their  mother- 
country  ;  and  that  they  will  enable  me,  with  the  concurrence 
and  support  of  my  Parliament,  to  accomplish  what  I  shall  con- 
sider the  greatest  happiness  of  my  life,  and  the  greatest  glory 
of  my  reign,  the  restoration  of  peace,  order,  and  confidence 
to  my  American  colonies."  Or,  in  plain  English, — to  see 
America  prostrate  at  my  feet.  Yes  !  from  thousands  of 
mouths  was  uttered  at  that  time  this  insulting  maxim — '  A  repeal 
of  our  RIGHT  to  tax  America  cannot  be  thought  of  till  she  is 
humbled  at  Lord  North's  feet  ! '  And  what  was  that  time, 
to  which  we  refer  ?  It  was  when  Burgoyne's  army  had,  thirty 
days  before  this  speech,  laid  down  their  arms,  and  surrendered 
to  the  deluded  American  militia !  * 

A  s;reat  majority  of  the  House  of  Peers  voted  triumphantly 
a  flattering  address — 97  to  28 — replete  with  terms  of  appro- 
bation, thanks,  and  loyal  promises.  The  House  of  Commons 
sung  to  the  same  tune  ;  Parliament  adjourned,  and  its  gratified 
members,  and  the  no  less  gratified  King,  enjoyed  the  festive 
recess,  while  the  unfortunate  Burgoyne,  with  the  remnants  of 
his  fine  army,  passed  a  sad  Christmas  on  the  snow-covered 
hills  now  within  my  sight ;  and  in  the  same  joyous  season 
America  ratified  her  alliance  ivith  France.  Previously  to  the 
British  "  holy-days  "  festivity.  Lord  Chatham  said  to  his  com- 


*  The  speech  was  delivered  November  18,  1777.  Burgoyne  sur- 
rendered on  the  17th  of  October,  preceding.  After  most  of  his  bravest 
ofBcers  were  killed,  and  nearly  half  his  army,  tlio  rest  laid  down  their 
arms,  and  were  marched  to  this  town  of  Camhridge,  where  they  were 
cantoned,  until  Congrkss  ordered  them  to  Virginia,  where  they  re- 
mained to  tlie  time  of  their  embarkation  for  England  and  for  Germany. 


396  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

peers,  in  a  voice  of  thunder, — "  My  Lords  !  this  is  a  ruinous 
and  ignominious  situation,  where  we  cannot  act  with  success, 
nor  suffer  with  honor  ;  whicli  calls  upon  us  to  remonstrate  in 
the  strongest  and  loudest  language  of  truth,  to  rescue  the  ear 
of  majesty  from  the  delusions  which  surround  it.  The  con- 
quest of  English  America  is  an  impossibility.  What  is 
your  present  situation  there  ?  We  do  not  know  the  worst ; 
but  we  know,  that  in  three  campaigns  we  have  done  nothing, 
and  suffered  much.  Besides  the  suffering,  perhaps  a  total  loss 
of  the  northern  army." 

Early  in  the  month  of  December,  1777,  intelligence  arrived 
of  the  TOTAL  LOSS  of  the  northern  army  ;  showing  a  more  ca- 
lamitous state  of  things  than  even  the  sagacity  of  Lord  Chatham 
had  predicted.  The  truth  could  no  longer  be  concealed. 
Lord  North,  with  deep  marks  of  dejection,  and  even  tears, 
acknowledged  the  extent  of  the  disaster,  and  said  that,  though 
unfortunate,  his  intentions  were  ever  just  and  upright;  that  he 
had  been,  in  a  manner,  forced  into  an  office,  which  he  would 
now  willingly  and  gladly  resign,  could  his  resignation  facilitate 
the  obtaining  that  peace  and  reconciliation  for  which  he  had 
EVER  earnestly  wished.  Lord  George  Germaine  bore  the 
mortification  with  more  marks  of  stoicism,  saying,  in  terms  of 
humiliation,  that  he  should  be  ever  ready  to  submit  his  con- 
duct to  the  judgment  of  that  House.  Honest  Lord  North  had 
been  less  used  to  misfortune  and  disgrace  than  Minden's  hero, 
and  therefore  obtained  rather  more  generous  pity  from  the 
opposition. 

When  the  catastrophe  at  Saratoga  w^as  communicated  to 
Parliament,  a  long  and  profound  silence  ensued.  Amazement 
and  consternation  seemed  to  pervade  the  house.  At  length  a 
strong  torrent  of  invective,  with  taunts  bitter  and  sarcastic, 
gushed  forth  from  the  leaders  of  the  opposition  against  all  the 
authors  of  the  calamity,  save  the  principal  one.  They  de- 
nounced the  pride,  the  ignorance,  and  the  incapacity  of  the 
planners,  counsellors,  and  ministers  of  measures  which  had 
occasioned  more  calamity  and  disgrace  to  the  nation,  than  had 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      397 

ever  befallen  the  arms  of  Britain  in  her  most  disastrous  war. 
Such  was  the  feeling  in  their  House  of  Representatives.  It 
was  the  same  in  the  House  of  Lords,  but  mingled  with  more 
signs  of  bitter  resentment  from  deeper  wounds  of  pride.  The 
people  out  of  doors  appeared  absolutely  confounded.*  Not 
being  yet  directed  what  to  think,  they  knew  not  what  to  say, 
or  how  to  act.  The  public  for  a  time,  stood  idly  and  stupidly 
gazing  on  that  portentous  meteor  which,  rolling  from  the  west, 
blackened  all  their  horizon,  and  seemed  about  to  burst  upon 
them  !  But  what  were  the  feelings  of  the  King  ? — the  author 
of  this  calamity  and  disgrace  !  We  must  gather  that  from  the 
conduct  of  "  his  Friends  ;"  for  suppression  and  concealment 
of  his  feelings  was  a  distinguishing  trait  in  the  character  of 
George  the  Third,  and  was  mistaken  for  dignity  by  "  his 
friends,"  and  perhaps  by  himself. 

Notwithstanding  the  awful  lesson  from  this  side  of  the  Atlan- 
tic, the  self-deluded  sovereign  soon  signified  his  resolution  to 
persevere  in  the  war  against  America.  He  resolved  to  try 
again  the  men-market  in  Germany.  Means  Avere  also  taken  to 
obtain  addresses  from  the  mercantile  towns  of  Liverpool,  Man- 
chester, and  several  less  considerable  places  in  England  ;  and 
from  the  cities  of  Glasgow  and  Edinburgh  in  Scotland.  These 
places  evinced  their  feelings  by  each  raising  a  full  regiment 
for  the  use  of  his  Majesty.  It  is  remarkable,  that  while  the 
king  could  raise  ovAy  jive  thousand  troops  by  private  subscrip- 
tion in  England,  ten  thousand  were  raised  in  affectionate  Scot- 
land. In  this  extraordinary  crisis  of  their  national  affairs,  the 
crown  contrived  to  have  an  unusually  long  recess  of  Parliament, 
so  that  when  it  convened,  the  tide  of  ministerial  influence  from 
its  lowest  ebb  appeared  to  be  rising  again  ;  and  when  it  attain- 
ed its  wished  for  height,  the  absolute  suhjvgation  of  America 
was  renewedly  urged  in  harsher  notes  than  ever. 

After  the  re-assembling  of  Parliament,  the  Commons  re- 
solved themselves  into   a  committee  of  the  whole   on  the  state 

*  The  author  was  then  an  inhabitant  of  London. 


398  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

of  the  nation,  when  the  capacious-minded  and  very  energetic 
Charles  Fox  laid  it  down  as  an  incontrovertible  axiom,  that 
"  It  was  impossible  for  any  country  to  fall,  ivithin  so  few  years, 
from  the  high  pitch  of  power  and  glory  ivhich  we  had  done, 
without  some  radical  error  in  the  government  ;  " — "  that 
the  present  calamitous  state  of  the  nation  was  evidently  to  be 
traced  to  the  blind  obstinacy  and  wretched  incapacity  of  its 
MINISTERS,  who  ivould  uot  Usteu  to  any  overtures  of  con- 
ciliation, and  who  could  not  carry  into  effect  any  plan  of 
coercion." 

Members  of  Parliament,  Peers  and  Commons,  use  the  terras 
ministers  and  ministry  theoretically,  as  they  ought  in  England, 
where  the  sovereign  is  made  irresponsible  by  their  constitution, 
in  order  to  prevent  meeting  him  again  on  the  scaffold,  or  in  the 
field  of  blood,  while  the  ministers  are  the  scape-goats  by  law  es- 
tablished. In  these  United  States  it  is  directly  the  reverse. 
The  Chief  Magistrate  is  answerable  for  every  measure,  and  his 
secretary  of  State,  or  prime  minister,  for  none.  We,  there- 
fore, when  speaking  of  the  attempt  to  tax  us,  without  our  con- 
sent, and  of  the  consequent  warfare,  substitute  the  term  King,  for 
that  of  ministry.  All  kings  are  obstinate  from  the  very  nature 
their  office.  Should  it  be  said  that  George  the  Third  was  con- 
stitutionally obstinate,  the  term  might  possibly  bear  the  con- 
strained meaning  of  an  equivoque  from  the  tongue  of  flattery  ; 
I  therefore  substitute  what  cannot  be  twisted  awry, — that  King 
George  the  Third,  grandson  and  successor  of  George  the 
Second,  was,  by  his  peculiar  idiosyncrasy,  a  very  obstinate, 
cold-hearted  man,  rendered  more  so  by  an  unfortunate  ed- 
ucation, partly  Scotch,  but  chiefly  German,  with  but  little 
more  of  the  English  cast  of  character  than  a  general  sense  of 
justice,  and  a  correct  course  of  domestic  and  personal  morals. 
When  he  came  unexpectedly  to  the  throne,  by  the  sudden 
death  of  his  father  and  grandfather,  it  was  hardly  possible 
that  his  mind  could  have  been  stored  with  the  requisite  portion 
of  the  science  of  English  government.  It  must  have  had 
blanks   on   the   most   important  parts   of  government.       His 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      399 

knowledge  of  America  was  entire  blank — an  hiatus  valde 
deflendus :  yet  these  blanks  were  hastily  filled  up,  by  his 
mother  and  Lord  Bute,  with  indelible  ink.  What  could  be 
expected  from  an  honest,  dull  young  man,  with  no  poetry 
or  music  within  him,  thus  situated  and  circumstanced  ?  "  He 
is  strictly  honest,"  says  his  governor.  Earl  Waldegrave,  "  but 
wants  that  frank  and  open  behaviour,  which  makes  honesty 
appear  amiable."  This  distinguished  nobleman,  and  favorite 
of  George  the  Second,  confesses  that  his  task  was  irksome, 
and  that  his  spirit  and  patience  were  at  last  exhausted  ; — that 
the  mother  and  the  nursery  always  prevailed,  and  to  them  and 
Lord  Bute,  it  seems,  the  destined  king  of  Great  Britain  was 
left.  And  he  closes  his  interesting  memoirs  with  this  sombre 
picture  of  envied  grandeur.  "  The  constant  anxiety  and  fre- 
quent mortifications,  which  accompany  ministerial  employments, 
are  tolerably  understood  ;  but  the  world  is  totally  unacquainted 
with  the  situation  of  those  whom  fortune  has  selected  to  be 
constant  attendants  and  companions  of  royalty,  who  partake  of 
its  domestic  amusements  and  social  happiness.  But  I  must 
not  lift  up  the  veil ;  and  shall  only  add,  that  no  man  can  have 
a  clear  conception  how  great  personages  pass  their  leisure 
hours,  who  has  not  been  a  prince's  governor,  or  a  king's  fa- 
vorite." 

Under  the  early  influence  of  gossiping  conversation,  how 
could  a  raw,  inexperienced,  unguarded  youth  acquire  mag- 
nanimous maxims  of  state  ?  He  could  not  obtain  them  from 
such  a  pedlar  in  politics  as  Lord  Bute,  a  man  void  of  the  least 
spark  of  genius,  whose  constant  effort  was  to  make  superficies 
appear  solids,  and  who,  with  an  air  of  profound  wisdom,  litter- 
ed the  young  monarch's  head  with  trifles,  mechanical  knick- 
nacks,  and  pretty  pictures  of  colored  natural  history,  and 
systematic  botany,  baubles,  and  gimcracks,  or  varied  his 
nonsense  with  little  tricks  of  chemistiy,  the  gazing-traps  of 
simpletons,  and  the  ridicule  of  every  legitimate  son  of  science. 
Had  Prince  George  a  single  spark  of  gayety  or  fun  in  his 
composition,  it  must  have  excited  ridicule  of  the  teacher,  gen- 


400  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

erating  contempt,  more  fatal  to  education  and  kingly  govern- 
ment than  even  fear  or  Imtred. 

The  domestic  companions  and  instructers  of  the  king,  una- 
ble to  corrupt  his  honest  heart,  or  mend  it,  only  hardened  it, 
and  warped  his  young  understanding  with  the  falsest  notions  of 
men,  of  things,  and  of  himself.  He  was  taugtit  to  believe  that 
men,  horses,  and  dogs,  for  which  Old  England  was  famous, 
degenerated  in  America,  where  nature  belittles  every  thing, 
save  venomous  reptiles  and  noisome  insects,  and  where  j?e/"o- 
rated  human  nature  would  naturally  approximate  the  savage, 
unless  restrained  by  the  maternal  care  and  guardianship  of 
benevolent  Britannia. 

George  the  Third  carried  Lord  Bute's  routine  of  solemn 
trifling  pretty  much  through  life.  He  actually  deemed  it  im- 
portant to  lead  his  two  eldest  sons  to  the  love  of  agriculture, 
in  which  they  were  practically  instructed  at  Windsor  to  sow, 
reap,  thresh,  grind,  and  sift  wheat,  to  the  completion  of  bread- 
making.  The  process  of  beei'-making,  and  all  the  curiosities 
of  the  brewery,  were  well  known  to  all  his  laughter-loving 
subjects.  His  rearing  the  finest  breed  of  merino  sheep,  ob- 
tained him  the  pleasing  title  of  the  Royal  Shepherd ;  and  the 
sale  of  such  as  his  Majesty  did  not  choose  to  keep  at  Windsor, 
by  public  auction,  at  which  Sir  Joseph  Banks  presided,  and 
superintended  their  delivery, — was  all  so  amiably  innocent,  so 
simply  honest,  guileless,  and  entirely  divested  of  the  dangerous 
Bonapartean  passion,  ambition,  that  I  marvel  not  at  the  very 
exalted  character  given  to  the  sovereign  by  the  poet-laureate, 
and  by  almost  all  the  clergy  of  the  established  church  ;  for, 
though  trifling  in  his  objects,  it  does  not  appear  that  he  was 
irreligious  or  cruelly  revengeful  in  his  nature,  and  we  charitably 
hope  that,    when   very   wrong,  he    mistook  wrong   for    right. 

*  Pder  Pindar,*  with  his  matchless  powers  of  ridicule,  could  never 
have  set  both  hemispheres  a  laughing,  had  lie  selected  for  the  subjects 
of  it,  either  the  late  King  George  the  Fourth,  or  the  present  monarch 
of  England,  William  IV. 

•  Dr.  Wolcott. 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  111.      4OI 

Nevertheless,  he  must  have  been  the  primary  and  efficient 
cause  of  the  movement  in  the  secret  and  irresponsible  cabinet 
after  February,  1772  5  for  at  that  period  the  Dowager  died.* 
By  its  operation,  two  systems  of  administration  were  formed, 
one  in  the  real  secret  and  confidence,  the  other  merely  osten- 
sible, to  perform  the  official  and  executory  offices  of  the  state. 
"  This  Court  Faction, ^^  to  use  the  words  of  Mr.  Burke, 
"  proceeded  gradually,  but  not  slowly,  to  destroy  every  thing  of 
strength  which  did  not  derive  its  principal  nourishment  from  the 
immediate  pleasure  of  the  Court.^^ — "  In  the  beginning  of  each 
arrangement,  no  professions  of  confidence  and  support  are 
wanting,  to  induce  the  leading  men  to  engage.  But  while  the 
ministers  of  the  day  appear  in  all  the  pomp  and  pride  of  power, 
while  they  have  all  their  canvass  spread  out  to  the  wind,  and 
every  sail  filled  with  the  fair  and  prosperous  gale  of  royal 
favor,  they  find,  they  know  not  how,  a  current  which  sets  di- 
rectly against  them,  which  prevents  all  progress,  which  even 
drives  them  backwards.  That  the  cabal  may  be  enabled  to 
compass  all  the  ends  of  its  institution,  its  members  are  scarcely 
ever  to  aim  at  the  high  and  responsible  offices  of  state.  They 
are  distributed  with  art  and  judgment  through  all  the  secondary 
but  efficient  departments  of  oflice,  and  through  the  households 
of  all  the  branches  of  the  Royal  family.  Like  Janissaries, 
they  derive  a  kind  of  freedom  from  the  very  condition  of  their 
servitude.  The  name  by  which  they  choose  to  distinguish 
themselves  is  that  of  the  King's   Friends."  f     In  the  No- 

*  It  is  easily  conceivable,  that  such  a  cunning  arrangement  was 
within  the  ability  of  a  shrewd  woman,  whose  cast  of  mind  and  habits 
approximated  nearer  to  those  of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots  t!ian  to  those  of 
Queen  Elizabeth  ;  and  that,  when  once  established,  this  imperiNni  in 
imperio  could  be  sustained,  after  her  death,  by  the  special  aid  of  Charles 
Jenkinson,  the  quondam  private  secretary  of  Lord  Bute,  the  confidential 
adviser  of  the  King  and  of  his  Queen  Charlotte,  the  principal  spoke 
in  the  primary  wheel  of  that  internal  machinery  or  clock,  to  which  we 
have  often  alluded,  and  of  which  the  public  saw  only  the  face,  with  its 
cuckoo,  the  Duke  of  G . 

f  "  Thoughts  on  the  Causes  of  the  Present  Discontents." 
51 


402  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

vember  session  of  Parliament,  1779,  the  Marquis  of  Rocking- 
ham, instead  of  the  usual  servile  echo  to  the  King's  speech, 
moved  in  the  House  of  Peers  an  amendment,  "  to  beseech 
his  Majesty  to  reflect  upon  the  extent  of  territory,  power,  and 
opulence, — of  reputation  abroad  and  concord  at  home,  which 
distinguished  the  opening  of  his  Majesty's  reign,  and  marked  it 
as  the  most  splendid  and  happy  period  in  the  history  of  this  na- 
tion ;  and  to  turn  his  eyes  on  the  present  endangered,  impov- 
erished, and  distracted  state  of  the  empire ;  and  to  state  to 
his  Majesty,  that  if  any  thing  can  prevent  the  consummation  of 
public  ruin,  it  can  be  only  new  counsels  and  new  counsellors, 
a  real  change,  from  the  conviction  of  past  errors,  and  not  a 
mere  palliation,  which  must  prove  fruitless." 

Did  ever  a  crowned  king  receive  a  more  severe  and  solemn 
rebuke  ?  Considering  whom  it  was  from,  and  where  delivered, 
it  was  a  severer  denouncement  than  the  American  Declaration 
of  Independence,  and,  one  would  think,  too  serious  to  be  made 
the  subject  of  a  monarch's  laughter. 

In  the  House  of  Commons  a  similar  amendment  to  the 
Address  was  moved  by  Lord  John  Cavendish  ;  a  sharp  debate 
ensued,  in  which  Charles  Fox  was  distinguished  by  his  bold- 
ness. He  said  that  it  was  not  the  mere  rumor  of  the  streets 
that  the  king  was  his  own  minister  ;  but  that  the  fatal  truth  was 
too  evident  to  be  denied  by  the  members  of  the  administration  ; 
— that  it  was  a  doctrine  in  the  highest  degree  dangerous,  to 
transfer  the  responsibility  of  the  minister  to  r  personage  who 
could  not,  by  the  principles  of  the  constitution,  be  called  to  an 
account."  * 

Nor  was  this  all.  Mr.  Dunning, f  in  grand  committee  of 
the  whole  House,  proposed  that  it  should  be  resolved, — that 
"  the  Influence  of  the  Crown  had  increased,  was  increasing, 
and  ought  to   he  diminished.''''     This  motion   was  warmly  sup- 

*  This  defect  in  the  British  constitution  is  wisely  remedied  in  the 
constitution  of  these  United  States, 
f  Lord  Ashburton. 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      403 

ported  by  the  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  who, 
though  rarely  accustomed  to  take  part  in  theh'  debates,  de- 
clared that,  "  on  an  occasion  like  the  present,  he  should  deem 
himself  criminal  in  remaining  silent ;  that  the  resolution  pro- 
posed contained  an  allegation  which  was  too  notorious  to 
require  proof, — which,  in  its  full  extent,  did  not  admit  of 
proof.  It  could  be  known  only  to  members  of  that  House, 
as  they  were  the  only  persons  competent  to  resolve  it.  They 
were  bound  as  jurors,  by  the  conviction  arising  in  their  own 
minds,  and  were  obliged  to  determine  accordingly.  The 
powers  constitutionally  vested  in  the  executive  part  of  the  gov- 
ernment, were  amply  sufhcient  for  all  the  purposes  of  good 
government,  but  its  undue  influence  had  increased  to  a  degree 
absolutely  incompatible  with  every  just  idea  of  a  limited  mon- 
archy ; — that  they  were  sitting  as  the  representatives  of  the 
people,  solely  for  their  advantage  and  benefit,  and  were  pledged 
to  them  for  the  fiiithful  discharge  of  their  trust." 

Another  occurrence  deserves  recording.  Earl  Gower, 
President  of  the  Council,  was  a  most  strenuous  supporter  of 
the  administration,  and  remarkable  for  his  acrimonious  and 
intemperate  oj)position  to  the  opinions  of  Lord  Chatham.  But 
at  this  time,  more  than  a  year  after  that  nobleman's  death,  he 
testified  his  change  of  sentiment,  and  said  "  that  he  had  pre- 
sided some  years  at  the  council-table,  where  he  had  seen  such 

THINGS   PASS,   THAT  NO   MAN   OF   HONOR  OR  CONSCIENCE   COULD 

ANY  LONGER  SIT  THERE."  This  is  spcaliing  Stronger  language 
than  that  used  by  Lord  Camden  on  the  same  subject.  He  only 
said  that  he  often  at  the  council  hv,yig  down  his  head  with  shame. 

In  such  a  humiliating  state  of  things,  as  it  regarded  the  Su- 
preme Executive,  George  the  Second  would  have  retired  to 
Hanover,  and  left  the  whigs  of  England  to  choose  a  King  with 
sentiments  more  congenial  to  their  own. 

The  war  against  America  commenced  in  1775,  and  con- 
tinued eight  years,  during  wh  ch  the  arms  of  the  United  States  so 
far  prevailed  as  to  conquer  two  British  armies,  one  in  the  north, 
commanded  by   General  Buigoyne,  the   other  in  the  south, 


404  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

commanded  by  Earl  CormvaUis.  The  people  of  England, 
once  so  fierce  for  war  against  us,  now  clamored  for  peace. 
But  the  king  would  not  listen  to  it ;  and  it  was  said  that  when 
Lord  North  told  his  royal  master  that  he  must  make  peace 
with  America,  the  King,  in  a  fit  of  fretfulness,  was  so  overcome 
with  passion  as  to  utter  the  word  impeachment. 

The  dignitaries  of  the  church,  almost  to  a  man,  and  the 
Episcopal  clergy  generally,  made  much  use  of  the  personal, 
private,  and  pious  character  of  the  King,  and  zealously  propa- 
gated the  doctrine  that  the  moral  and  religious  character  of  a 
King  was  the  circumstance  most  to  be  prized  by  his  subjects ; 
and  when  the  Prince  of  Wales  grew  up,  the  contrast  between 
the  father  and  the  son  was  industriously  and  malevolently  re- 
marked by  the  "  King's  friends,"  and  every  courtier.  This 
was  the  universal  language  in  Canada  and  Nova  Scotia.  Mr. 
Heron,  in  a  note  to  a  passage  of  the  Letter  of  Junius  to  the 
King,  speaking  of  his  goodness,  virtue,  and  discretion,  says — 
"  How  else  should  he  have  triumphed  over  the  unpopularity 
which  it  was  so  industriously  striven  to  excite  against  him, 
the  first  twelve  years  of  his  reign  ?  How  else  should  he  have 
retained  the  fond  attachment  of  his  people,  amid  the  disasters 
of  the  American  war  ?  Is  it  not  the  force  of  character  that 
has  preserved  him  so  much  more  favor  with  a  nation  than  his 
eldest  son  ?  "  This  writer  has  not  been  too  well  informed  on 
this  subject.  Neither  George  the  First,  Second,  nor  Fourth, 
ever  met  with  so  many  marks  of  popular  hatred  and  disgust 
as  George  the  Third,  in  going  to  and  returning  from  Parliament. 

It  is  not  worth  while  for  flattery  to  eulogize  the  royal 
character,  when  such  men  as  Sir  George  Saville,  the  Aris- 
iides  of  Britain,  held  this  pubhc  language  to  his  constituents.* 
"  I  at  length  return  to  you,  with  hardly  a  ray  of  hope  of 
seeing  any  change  in  the  miserable  course  of  public  calam- 
ities. On  this  melancholy  day  of  account,  in  rendering  up  to 
you  my  trust,  I  deliver  to  you  your  share  of  a  country  maimed 

*  Sir  George  Saville  was  member  for  the  rich  county  of  York. 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      495 

and  weakened,  its  treasure  lavished  and  misspent,  its  honors 
faded,  and  its  conduct  the  laughing-stock  of  Europe  ;  our 
nation  in  a  manner  without  allies  or  friends,  except  such  as  we 
have  hired  to  destroy  our  fellow-subjects,  and  to  ravage  a  coun- 
try in  which  we  once  claimed  an  invaluable  share. 

"  Forbearing  as  well  the  forward  promises  as  the  superficial 
humbleness  of  phrase  in  use  on  these  occasions,  I  make  it  a 
solemn  duty  to  lay  before  you,  without  disguise  or  palliation, 
the  present  slate  of  your  concerns,  as  they  appear  to  me,  and 
the  gloomy  prospect  which  lies  before  us.  Some  have  been 
accused  of  exaggerating  the  public  misfortunes — nay,  of  hav- 
ing endeavoured  to  help  forward  the  mischief,  that  they  might 
afterwards  raise  discontents.  I  am  willing  to  hope  that  neither 
my  temper  nor  my  situation  in  life  will  be  thought  naturally  to 
urge  me  to  promote  misery,  discord,  or  confusion,  or  to  exult 
in  the  subversion  of  order,  or  the  ruin  of  property.  Trust 
not,  however,  to  my  report :  reflect,  compare,  and  judge  for 
yourselves.  But  under  all  these  disheartening  circumstances, 
I  could  yet  retain  a  cheerful  hope,  and  undertake  again  the 
commission  with  alacrity  as  well  as  zeal,  if  I  could  see  any 
effectual  steps  taken  to  remove  the  original  cause  of  the  mis- 
chief:   THEN    THERE    WOULD    BE    A  HOPE.       Till    tllC    purity  of 

the  constituent  body,  and  thereby  that  of  the  representatives, 
be  restored,  there  is  none.  I  look  upon  restoring  election 
and  representation  in  some  degree — for  I  expect  no  miracles — 
to  their  original  purity,  to  be  that  without  which  all  other  efforts 
will  be  vain  and  ridiculous." 

The  King  of  England  had  not  a  more  respectable  subject  in 
point  of  character  and  influence  than  Sir  George  Saville,  and 
wliat  he  said  was  like  a  body  falling  from  a  great  height.  Its 
impression  was  deep  and  lasting.  Had  the  people  of  England 
more  reason  to  rise  up  against  the  conduct  of  King  Charles 
the  First,  than  against  the  obstinate  conduct  of  George  the 
Third  ?  His  pertinacity  and  their  forbearance  are  wonders  in 
the  history  of  England.  Who  can  be  surprised  at  the  sharp 
PEN  of  Junius  in  lieu  of  a  keener  instrument  ?     It  was  the  indi- 


406  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

redness  of  the  attack  upon  English  liberty  through  the  sides  of 
Ameiica,  which  preserved  the  third  George  from  the  greatest 
personal  calamity.  Lord  Chatham,  and  a  few  more  real 
Whigs  were  sensible  that,  in  tliis  respect,  America  was, 
during  eight  Ipng  years,  a  battered  shield  held  up  to  protect 
even  Britannia  from  the  uplifted  hand  of  tyranny.  It  was  not 
the  greatest  of  misfortunes  that  England  had  such  a  phlegmatic 
man  to  succeed  George  the  Second, — a  man  rather  too  good 
for  another  public  warning  to  deluded  monarchs ;  and  not  wise 
enough  to  be  borne  with  patient  dignity.  There  must  be 
sometliing  rotten  in  the  state  of  England,  to  generate  such  a 
condition  of  things,  and  to  excite  such  universal  discontent. 
George  the  Third,  though  born  in  London,  was  altogether 
German.  There  was  no  John-Biillery  about  him.  No — his 
friend,  the  strong-spoken  Lord  Thurlow,  monopolized  that 
character  even  to  its  dregs. 

On  the  18th  of  October,  1781,  Earl  Cornwallis  surren- 
dered his  army  at  Yorktown  to  General  Washington.  The 
second  session  of  the  new  Parliament  commenced  the  27th  of 
the  following  November,  when  the  King,  alluding  to  that  disas- 
ter, declared  in  his  speech,  that  "  he  retained  a  firm  confidence 
in  the  protection  of  Divine  Providence,  and  a  perfect  con- 
viction of  the  JUSTICE  of  his  cause  ;  and  called  for  the 
concurrence   of   Parliament   in    a    vigorous,   animated,   and 

UNITED  EXERTION  of  the  FACULTIES  and  RESOURCES  of  llis 
PEOPLE." 

Upon  this  Strange  language  from  the  Throne,  under  these 
disastrous  events  and  circumstances,  a  respectable  and  candid 
historian*  remarks,  that  the  whole  speech  was  plainly  indica- 
tory of  a  fixed  and  resolute  determination  to  prosecute  a  war, 
of  which  it  might  well  be  supposed  that  "fools  as  gross  as 
ignorance  made  drunk"  might  by  this  time  have  seen  the 
hopelessness  and  the  absurdity. 

This  extraordinary  speech  underwent  as  severe  animadver- 
sion as  the  rules  of  Parhament  would  allow,  particularly  from 


*  Memoirs  of  the  Reign  of  George  the  Third,  by  W.  Belsham,  vol.  iii. 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      407 

Charles  Fox,  who  said  that  "  he  and  many  others  expected 
to  hear  on  this  occasion  his  Majesty  declare  from  the  Throne, 
that  he  had  been  deceived,  and  imposed  upon  by  misinfor- 
mation and  misrepresentation  ;  that  in  consequence  of  his 
delusion,  the  Parliament  had  been  deluded,  but  that  now  the 
deception  was  at  an  end  ;  that  instead  of  requesting  the  Par- 
liament to  devise  the  most  speedy  and  efficacious  means  of 
putting  an  end  to  the  public  calamities,  they  had  heard  a 
speech  breathing  little  else  than  vengeance,  misery,  and  blood. 
Those  who  were  ignorant  of  the  personal  character  of  the 
Sovereign,  and  who  imagined  the  speech  to  originate  with 
him,  might  be  led  to  suppose  that  he  was  an  unfeeling  despot, 
rejoicing  in  the  horrid  sacrifice  of  the  liberty  and  lives  of  his 
subjects,  who,  when  all  hope  of  victory  was  vanished,  still 
thirsted  for  revenge.  The  ministers,  said  he,  who  advised  this 
speech,  are  a  curse  to  the  country  over  the  affairs  of  which 
they  had  too  long  been  suffered  to  preside."  ^ 

JVillianiPitt,  the  younger,  said  on  this  occasion,  "  That  the 
duty  he  owed  his  Sovereign  and  his  country  compelled  him  to 
exert  every  effort  to  prevent  the  House  from  precipitately  vot- 
ing an  address,  which  pledged  them  to  the  support  of  that  fatal 
system  which  had  led  this  country,  step  by  step,  to  the  most 
calamitous  and  disgraceful  shuation  to  which  a  once  flourishing 
and  glorious  empire  could  be  reduced.  Was  it  becoming  the 
Parliament  of  a  free  people  to  echo  back  the  words  which  a 
minister,  long  practised  in  the  arts  of  delusion,  had  dared 
to  put  into  the  royal  mouth  ?  He  implored  the  House  not  to 
vote  for  an  address  fraught  with  treachery  and  falsehood, 
which  could  not  have  been  framed  by  any  who  felt  for  the 
honor  of  the  King,  the  dignity  of  Parliament,  or  the  interest 
of  the  nation." 

The  Duke  of  Richmond  said,  in  the  House  of  Peers,  that 
the  misfortunes  of  the  country  were  owing  to  that  wretched 
system  of  government  which  had  been  early  adopted  in  the 
reign  of  his  present  IMajesty,  and  to  the  influence  of  that  In- 

*  Ibid. 


408  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

TERiOR  Cabinet,  which  had  been  the  ruin  of  the  country ; 
and  he  recalled  to  the  recollection  of  the  House  the  memora- 
ble declaration  of  the  Earl  of  Chatham,  "  that  he  was  duped 
and  deceived,  and  tliat  he  had  not  been  ten  days  in  the  cabinet 
before  he  felt  the  ground  rotten  under  his  feet. ^^ 

Yet  flattering  addresses  were  voted  in  both  Houses,  by  great 
majorities. 

On  the  12th  of  December  Sir  James  Lowther  said  that 
"the  late  speech  from  the  Throne  had  given  a  just  alarm  to 
the  nation  ;  it  had  shown  them  that  the  ministers  were  deter- 
mined to  persevere  in  the  American  war, — that  more  blood, 
and  more  money  were  to  be  lavished  in  this  fatal  contest ;  the 
men  invested  with  the  powers  of  government  derived  no  ad- 
vantage from  experience, — the  surrender  of  one  army  only 
gave  them  spirit  to  risque  a  second,  and  the  surrender  of  the 
second  only  instigated  them  to  venture  a  third.  There  was  no 
end  of  loss  and  of  madness.''^ 

Mr.  Poivys,  a  distinguished  leader  of  that  respectable  body 
of  men,  denominated  in  England  the  country  gentlemen,  fol- 
lowed in  the  same  track,  and  said  that  the  war  with  the  Colo- 
nies was  the  idol  of  his  Majesty's  [ministers;]  they  had  bowed 
before  it  themselves,  and  made  the  nation  bow.  The  conduct 
which  at  the  commencement  might  be  denominated  firmness, 
had  now  degenerated  into  obstinacy;  an  obstinacy  which 
called  upon  all  honest  and  independent  men  to  desert  the 
present  administration,  unless  a  change  of  measures  were 
adopted. 

General  Burgoyne  took  the  same  side  in  the  debate,  and 
acknowledged  that  "  he  was  now  convinced  the  principle  of  the 
American  war  was  wrong,  though  he  had  not  been  of  that 
opinion  when  he  engaged  in  the  service.  Passion  and  preju- 
dice," said  he,  "  and  interest  were  now  no  more,  and  reason  and 
observation  had  led  him  to  a  very  different  conclusion:  and  he 
now  saw  that  the  American  war  was  only  one  part  of  a  sys- 
tem, levelled  against  the  constitution,  and  the  general  rights  of 
mankind. ^^ 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      409 

The  Secretary  for  "  the  American  department "  Lord 
George  Germaine,  stated  to  the  House  that  the  ministry  in- 
tended to  change  the  plan  of  the  war,  and  not  send  another 
army  to  supply  the  place  of  that  just  captured  at  Yorktown  ; 
but  only  to  preserve  such  posts  in  America,  as  might  facilitate 
and  co-operate  with  the  enterprises  of  their  fleet.  This  called 
up  that  firm  and  faithful  patriot.  Sir  George  Saville,  who  said 
that  he  had  not  heard  the  King's  speech  on  its  first  delivery ; 
but  when  it  reached  him  in  his  retirement,  he  read  it  with 
HORROR.  We  are  given  to  understand,  said  he,  that  a  change 
is  to  be  made  in  the  mode  of  conducting  the  American  war. 
The  ministers  do  not  intend  to  prosecute  it  in  the  same  manner 
as  before. — Why?  Because  they  could  not,  if  they  would. 
He  ridiculed  in  the  most  pointed  manner,  the  mean,  futile, 
servile,  empty-sounding  echoes  of  the  King's  speeches.  He 
said  the  ministers  had  lost  the  two  hands  of  the  empire  in  the 
prosecution  of  this  frantic  and  ineffectual  war.  By  a  continu- 
ance of  it  they  would  risque  the  head.  Such  a  conduct 
resembled,  if  it  did  not  indicate,  the  violence  of  insanity. 

General  Comvay  declared  himself  anxious  for  the  return  of 
the  fleets  and  armies  from  America.  As  to  the  idea  now  sug- 
gested, of  a  war  of  posts,  he  asked — what  garrisons  would  be 
able  to  maintain  them,  when  it  was  well  known  that  even  Sir 
Henry  Clinton  did  not  consider  himself  safe  at  New  York  ? 

Mr.  Pitt  reprobated,  with  an  eloquence  resembling  that  of 
his  illustrious  father,  this  renewal  of  the  war  on  a  new  plan,  as 
a  species  of  obstinacy  bordering  upon  madness.  Nor  was  the 
noble  city  of  London  silent  on  this  solemn  topic.  In  their 
petition  to  the  King  they  implore  his  Majesty  to  dismiss  from 
his  presence  and  councils  all  the  advisers,  both  public  and 
secret,  of  the  measures  pursued  and  contemplated. 

After  the  King  in  high  displeasure  had  turned  his  back  on 
the  unfortunate  Burgoyne  for  not  performing  impossibilities,  he 
thought  fit  to  reward  Lord  George  Germaine  with  a  peerage, 
which  was  considered  an  insufferable  indignity  to  the  House 
of  Peers,  and  an  outrageous  insult  to  the  public.  Lord  Abing- 
52 


410  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

ion  said  of  him,  "  What  has  that  person  done  to  merit  honors 
superior  to  his  fellow  citizens  ?  His  only  claim  to  promotion 
was,  that  he  had  undone  his  country  by  executing  the  plan  of 
that  cursed  invisible  though  efficient  cabinet,  from  whom  as  he 
received  his  orders,  so  he  had  obtained  his  reward."  Before 
the  great  seal  was  affixed  to  the  patent,  the  Marquis  of  Car- 
marthen moved  in  the  House  of  Peers,  "  that  it  was  highly 
derogatory  to  the  honor  of  that  House,  that  any  person 
laboring  under  the  sentence  of  a  court  martial,  styled  in  the 
public  orders  issued  by  his  late  Majesty,  'a  censure  much 
worse  than  death'  and  adjudged  unfit  to  serve  his  Majesty  in 
any  military  capacity,  should  be  recommended  to  the  Crown 
as  a  proper  person  to  sit  in  that  House."  Lord  George  Ger- 
maine,  who  had  actually  taken  his  seat,  rose  up  and  denied  the 
justice  of  the  sentence  passed  upon  him,  and  affirmed  "  that 
he  considered  his  restoration  to  the  Council  Board,  at  a  very 
early  period  of  the  present  reign,  as  amounting  to  a  virtual 
repeal  of  that  iniquitous  verdict." 

The  Duke  of  Richmond  said  that  he  himself  was  present  at 
the  battle  of  Minden,  and  could  have  proved  that  the  time 
lost,  when  Lord  George  Germaine  delayed  to  advance  was  not 
less  than  one  hour  and  an  half,  and  that  his  Lordship's  cavalry 
were  a  mile  and  a  quarter  only  from  the  scene  of  action.  Lord 
Southampton,  who  was  aid-de-camp  to  Prince  Ferdinand  on  that 
memorable  day,  and  delivered  the  message  of  his  Serene  High- 
ness to  Lord  G.  Germaine,  vindicated  the  equity  of  the  sentence. 

Yet  such  was  the  overwhelming  influence  of  the  Sovereign, 
and  the  servility  of  ninety-three  Lords,  against  twenty-eight,  that 
the  "  Minden  hero  "  enjoyed  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Lords,  as  a 
Peer !  and  it  appeared  that  he  never  enjoyed  himself  much  out 
of  that  House,  or  at  a  distance  from  St.  James's. 

Wellbore  Ellis,  next  to  Charles  Jenkinson,  was  the  most 
busy,  steady,  and  efficient  member  of  the  secret  and  invisible 
cabinet.  His  great  zeal  in  the  prosecution  of  Mr.  Wilkes, 
gave  birth  to  this  striking  passage  in  Junius  " — "  The  mine 
was  sunk,  combustibles  provided,  and  Wellbore  Ellis,  the  Guy 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      4II 

Faux  of  the  fable,  waited  only  for  the  signal  of  command," — 
which  exquisite  graphical  description  gave  birth  to  a  satirical 
engraving,  entitled  "  Gun-powder  Plot  " ;  in  which  Mr.  Ellis 
was  drawn  with  a  lantern,  setting  fire  to  the  combustibles,  pre- 
pared for  blowing  up  the  Constitution  ;  and  Lord  Bute  in  the 
back  ground,  with  a  truncheon  in  his  hand,  giving  the  word  of 
cojnmand. 

On  the  King's  raising  our  old  enemy  Lord  George  Germaine 
to  the  peerage,  Wellbore  Ellis  was  appointed  to  fill  his  place 
as  Secretary  for  the  American  Department.  He  informed  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  February  1782 — that  now  [since  the 
capture  of  Earl  Cornwallis  and  his  army]  the  war  was  to  be 
carried  on  against  America  on  a  more  contracted  scale,  and 
that  hostilities  were  to  be  prosecuted  by  means  very  dissimilar 
from  the  past.  That  "  the  unhappy  faction  in  America,  which 
still  continued  its  resistance  to  the  government  of  this  kingdom, 
though  less  numerous  than  the  party  of  the  royalists,  could  only 
be  rooted  out  by  pushing  the  war  with  vigor  against  France. 
In  order  to  obtain  peace  with  America  we  must  vanquish  the 
French ;  and  as  in  the  late  war  [that  carried  on  by  Lord 
Chatham']  France  had  been  said  to  be  conquered  in  Germa- 
ny,— so  in  this  America  must  be  conquered  in  France  "  ! — 
Here  is  a  specimen  of  the  wisdom  and  of  the  information  of 
a  member  of  the  interior  cabinet.  This  strange  speech  of  Mr. 
Ellis  called  forth  the  indignation  and  contempt  of  the  all-sensi- 
tive Burke,  who  said  "  that  the  honorable  gentleman  was 
indeed  an  old  member,  but  a  young  Secretary — that  hav- 
ing studied  at  the  feet  of  Gamaliel,  he  had  entered  into  full 
possession  of  all  the  parliamentary  qualifications,  by  which  his 
predecessor  had  been  so  conspicuously  distinguished  ; — the 
same  attachments,  the  same  antipathies,  the  same  extrava- 
gant delusion,  the  same  wild  phantoms  of  the  brain,  marked 
the  Right  Hon.  gentleman  as  the  true  ministerial  heir  and  res- 
iduary legatee  of  the  noble  viscount ;  and  notwithstanding  the 
metamorphosis  he  had  recently  undergone,  he  was  so  truly  the 
same  thing  in  the  same  place,  that  justly  might  ii  be  said  of 


412  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

him,  '^Alter  et  idem  nascitur."  Being  of  the  caterpillar  spe- 
cies, he  had  remained  the  destined  time  within  the  soft  and 
silken  folds  of  a  lucrative  employment,  till  having  burst  his 
ligaments,  he  fluttered  forth  the  butterfly  minister  of  the  day." 

On  General  Conway's  motion  "  for  an  address  to  the  King, 
earnestly  imploring  his  Majesty,  that  he  would  be  graciously 
pleased  to  listen  to  the  humble  prayer  and  advice  of  his  faithful 
Commons,  that  the  war  on  the  continent  of  North  America 
might  no  longer  be  pursued,  for  the  impracticable  purpose  of 
reducing  that  country  to  obedience  by  force,"  Mr.  Ellis  op- 
posed it  by  a  very  long  speech,  of  which  we  have  given  a 
short  specimen,  not  much  to  the  credit  of  the  speaker,  on  the 
score  of  information.  He  was,  however,  a  man  of  talents  and 
industry,  ingenious  in  evading,  palliating,  explaining  away,  and 
straining  precedents.  He  could  magnify  trifles,  and  trace  simil- 
itudes where  none  ever  existed,  and  deny  and  assert  when  the 
proofs  were  not  within  reach  :  on  the  whole,  he  was  a  very  use- 
ful member  of  the  secret  cabinet,  a  junto,  described,  or  rather 
alluded  to  by  Junius,  in  as  bitter  a  paragraph  as  ever  issued 
from  the  pen  of  that  matchless  writer,  viz. 

"  Without  attempting  to  account  for  all  the  political  changes, 
which  have  happened  since  his  Majesty's  auspicious  accession 
to  the  Throne,  it  requires  but  little  sagacity  to  observe  that  the 
general  principle,  from  which  they  have  arisen,  is  uniform  and 
consistent  with  itself.  A  Prince  of  the  house  of  Brunswick 
searches  for  consolation  and  endearments  of  private  sociality 
and  friendship  in  the  loyal  hearts  of  Jacobites,  Tories,  and 
Scotchmen  ; — a  devout  Prince,  whose  sincere,  unaffected  piety 
would  have  done  honor  even  to  Charles  the  First,  intrusts  the 
public  government  of  his  afi^airs  to  Grafton,  North,  Halifax,  and 
Sandwich.  The  first  choice  naturally  led  to  the  second.  The 
j?nm^e  convivial  hours  of  Jonathan  Wild*  were  happily  unbent 
in  the  company   of  the   lower   adepts  in  pilfering  and  petty 


*  A  notorious  highwayman,  and  captain  of  a  gang  of  thieves,  cele- 
brated by  Fielding. 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.  413 

larceny.     In  public,  he  resumed  his  state,  and  never  appeared 
without  an  attendant  knot  of  highwaymen  and  assassins." 

Junius  never  penned  a  more  impertinent,  if  not  impudent 
paragraph,  than  this  against  the  Sovereign,  his  ostentible,  and 
his  secret  counsellors.  It  was  contained  in  a  letter  to  the 
printer,  Dec.  20,  1770,  and  signed  Domitian,  and  concludes 
thus — "  Give  me  leave,  Mr.  Woodfall,  to  ask  you  a  serious 
question.  How  long  do  you  think  it  possible  for  this  manage- 
ment to  last  ?  How  long  is  this  great  country  to  be  governed 
by  a  boot  and  a  petticoat  ? — by  the  infamous  tools  of  a  Scotch 
exile,  and  her  Royal  Highness  the  Princess  Dowager  of  Wales? 
— hyJVorth,  Ellis,  Barrington,  Jenkinson,  Hillsborough,  Jerry 
Dyson,  and  Sandwich  ? — I  will  answer  you  with  precision.  It 
will  last,  until  there  is  a  general  insurrection  of  the  English 
nation,  or  until  the  house  of  Bourbon  have  collected  their 
strength  and  strike  you  to  the  heart." 

Junius,  under  the  same  recognised  signature  of  "Domi- 
tian," Jan.  17,  1771,  says — "His  Majesty,  God  bless  him! 
has  now  got  rid  of  every  man  whose  former  services  or  present 
scruples  could  be  supposed  to  give  offence  to  her  Royal  High- 
ness the  Princess  Dowager  of  Wales.  The  security  of  our 
civil  and  religious  hberties  cannot  be  more  happily  provided  for 
than  while  Lo7'd  Mansfield  pronounces  the  law,  and  Lord 
Sandwich  represents  the  religion  of  St.  James's.  Such  law 
and  such  religion  are  too  closely  united  to  suffer  even  a  momen- 
tary intervention  of  common  honesty  between  them.  Her  Royal 
Highness'  scheme  of  government,  formed  long  before  her  hus- 
band's death,  is  now  accomplished.  She  has  succeeded  in 
disuniting  every  party,  and  dissolving  every  connexion  ;  and, 
by  the  mere  influence  of  the  Crown,  has  formed  an  adminis- 
tration, such  as  it  is,  out  of  the  refuse  of  them  all. 

"  There  are  two  leading  principles  in  the  politics  of  St. 
James's,  which  will  account  for  almost  every  measure  of  gov- 
ernment since  the  King's  accession.  The  first  is,  that  the 
prerogative  is  sufficient  to  make  a  lackey  a  prime  minister,  and 
to  maintain  him  in  that  post,  without  any  regard  to  the  welfare 


414  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

or  to  the  opinion  of  the  people. — The  second  is,  that  none  but 
persons  insignificant  in  themselves,  or  of  tainted  reputation, 
should  be  brought  into  employment.  Men  of  greater  conse- 
quence and  abilities  will  have  opinions  of  their  own,  and  will 
not  submit  to  the  meddling,  unnatural  ambition  of  a  mother, 
who  grasps  at  unlimited  power,  at  the  hazard  of  her  son's  de- 
struction. They  will  not  suffer  measures  of  public  utility, 
which  have  been  resolved  upon  in  council,  to  be  checked  and 
controlled  by  a  secret  influence  in  the  closet.  Such  men  con- 
sequently will  never  be  called  upon  but  in  cases  of  extreme 
necessity.  When  that  ceases,  they  find  their  places  no  longer 
tenable." 

How  consonant  is  all  this  to  what  we  have  related  of  the 
Earl  of  Chatham,  and  to  what  he  himself  said  in  the  House  of 
Peers,  respecting  the  secret  influence,  or  that  influence  behind 
the  Throne,  greater  than  the  Throne  itself. 

We  have  said  already  that  when  the  Princess  Dowager  of 
Wales  found  she  could  not  make  a  Solomon  of  her  son,  she 
resolved  to  make  him  a  Joseph.  Her  wish  was  to  marry  him 
to  one  of  the  Princesses  of  the  Saxe-Gotha  family;  but 
George  the  Second  opposed  it,  saying  he  had  enough  of  that 
already.  He  strongly  recommended  a  Princess  of  Bruns- 
wick, for  the  transcendency  of  her  person  and  mind  ;  but  the 
Dowager  was  opposed  to  her  as  an  unfit  character  for  her 
sober  and  phlegmatic  son,  and  signified  that  such  a  brilliant 
woman  would  influence  George  entirely,  which  idea  militated 
against  her  policy  ;  and  so  they  adopted  a  middle  course,  and  se- 
lected Princess  Charlotte  of  Mecklenberg-Strelitz.  Mons. 
Le  Montagnard  Parvenu  says  that  "  Heaven,  through  the  in- 
termediate agency  of  the  new  Secretary  of  State,  Lord  Bute, 
pointed  out  that  Princess  for  Queen."  She  was  a  woman  of 
safe  qualities  of  person,  mind,  and  conduct,  not  but  what  she 
had  her  opinions,  and  occasional  influence  in  the  interior  cabi- 
net, where  her  esteemed  Mr.  Jenkinson  was  not  the  least  of 
its  influential  members.* 

*  Charles  Jenkinson,  late  Lord  Liverpool,  was  Solicitor  General  to 
the  Queen,  and  greatly  confided  in  by  her  Majesty. 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      415 

The  royal  mother  had  probably  a  perfectly  correct  idea  of 
her  son's  character — a  young  man  of  a  slow  but  sure  under- 
standing, of  obtuse  feelings  as  it  regarded  himself  and  others 
about  him,  with  more  mathematics  in  his  composition,  than 
poetry  or  music,  and  commonly  obtaining  a  clear  insight 
into  men  and  things  within  a  narrow  compass.  She  inculcated 
with  entire  success  the  church  common-prayer  book,  and  all 
the  mechanical  parts  of  good  breeding  becoming  a  perfect  gen- 
tleman. Had  his  male  instructors  been  equally  successful,  it 
might  have  been  better  for  the  realm,  and  happier  for  its  mon- 
arch. It  seems  to  us  that  he  had  never  been  wisely  instructed 
in  the  royal  prerogative,  down  through  a  long  succession  of 
English  Kings.  That  a  young  monarch  ignorant  of  the  world 
and  of  himself,  should  incline  his  ear  to  the  maxims  of  the 
house  of  Stuart,  and  to  those  of  Saxe-Gotha,  where  the  sove- 
reignty IS  property,  and  not  magistracy  as  in  England,  is  not  much 
to  be  wondered  at.  The  intoxicating  view  of  the  kingly  power 
as  displayed  in  English  law  books,  is  illusive ;  there  his  sacred 
Majesty  is  said  to  be  absolute  ruler  of  the  State  ;  supreme  judge 
among  its  inhabitants  ;  sole  owner  of  its  land ;  commander  of 
its  forces ;  representative  of  its  existence  abroad  ;  fountain  of 
its  honors — immortal,  infallible,  everywhere  present,  and  in- 
capable of  doing  or  meaning  wrong ;  and  to  be  a  corporation 
sole.*  The  distinguished  personage  invested  with  such  mighty 
authority  is  a  mere  creature  of  legal  theory  ;  his  power  in 
practice  is  checked  ;  his  defects  are  supplied  in  various  ways  ; 
he  cannot  act  in  any  way  without  some  adviser,  and  some 
instrument  answerable  for  what  is  done,  which  makes  the 
power,  in  the  law  book  stated  to  be  supreme,  in  practice 
exceedingly  limited.  In  a  word,  this  British  sovereignty, 
though  an  ideal  creature,  places  the  King  high  beyond  all  com- 
petition. Hence  it  is  that  there  is  no  Christian  monarch  who 
is  approached  with  so  many  tokens  of  veneration  and  respect, 
bordering  upon  awe,  as  the  Kings  of  Great  Britain,  even  since 

*  See  Edinburgh  Review  for  October,  1830,  article  VIII.  Growtli  of 
the  Royal  Prerogative.  By  John  Allen. 


416  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

the  revolution  of  1688.  Their  footmen  or  body  attendants  are 
noblemen,  and  the  waiting-maids  of  their  Queens  a  species  of 
nobility. 

The  sovereign  power  of  Great  Britain  is  a  first-rate  man  of 
war,  and  the  most  potent  ship  of  the  hue  : — call  her,  if  you 
please  to  excuse  the  jumble  of  sexes,  the  Royal  George  in  all 
its  gallant  trim,  bearing  at  her  mast-head  the  emblem  of  sove- 
reignty with  gorgeous  decorations — a  triple  set  of  officers  and 
a    numerous   crew,  ample  stores  and   warhke  equipments — a 
rapidly  moving  battery   of  the  heaviest  cannon   exceeding  in 
number  most  forts  of  stone  ;  a  sort  of  tremendous  thunder  cloud ; 
a  mischief,  undreamt  of  in  Greece  and  Rome,  and  beyond  their 
poet's  imagination  or  philosophy's  credibility  ;  a  beauty  to  gaze 
at — at  once  the  pride,  nay,  perfection  of  human  art  and  power, 
whether  we  contemplate  its  construction,  arrangement,  and  econ- 
omy, or  its  management  to  its  destined  end,  by  bridling  the  winds, 
and  making  air  and  water  obedient  to  man's  command,  while  it 
pours  forth  fire  and  destruction,  thunder  and  lightning,  on  its  en- 
emies, itself  being  in  safety.   To  complete  the  wonder,  the  whole 
is  carried  rapidly  through  the  trackless  ocean   in  the  darkest 
night,  by  the  inscrutable  influence  of  a  Httle  stone  to  all  appear- 
ance worthless,  giving  a  fresh  instance  that,  in  the  affairs  of  men. 
Providence  uses  the  smallest  and  most  contemptible  means  to 
operate  the  greatest  and  most  powerful  effects.     Such  is  the 
splendid  emblem  of  the  constitutional  power  of  a  British  King  and 
ministry,  the  pride  of  man  and  the  perfection  of  Arty  that  distin- 
guishing attribute  of  human  nature.  Yet  are  the  Commons,  that  is, 
the  PEOPLE,  the  Water,  without  which  the  Royal  George  cannot 
stir  an  inch,  and  which  they  can  at  any  lime  draw  off  by  denying 
supplies,  and  leave  this  eighth  wonder  of  the  world,  aground,  ab- 
solutely immoveable,  with  no  power  beyond  that  of  cannon  and 
musquet  shot, — to  perish,    an   object    of  commiseration   and 
tears,  rather  than  of  fear  and  reverence.     Such  a  thing  is  but  a 
costly  pageant,  without  its  origin  and  support,  water,  that  ele- 
ment which  enters  into  everything  in  a  growing  state,  that  refresh- 
es, recruits,  and  makes  fruitful,  and  which  when  extracted,  that 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.     417 

thing  perishes  and  crumbles  to  dust.  If  such  were  not  the 
condition  and  the  fate  of  Charles  the  First  of  England,  and 
Louis  the  Sixteenth  of  France,  I  have  read  their  history  to  httle 
advantage. — I  write  for  my  countrymen. 

It  is  difficult  and  hazardous  to  pronounce  on  the  compound 
character  of  a  king.  We  must  compare  kings  with  one  ano- 
ther, and  not  with  men  in  lower  and  less  exposed  stations.  The 
late  President  Jefferson,  for  whose  memory  I  retain  a  very  great 
respect  without  subscribing  to  all  his  opinions,  says  of  them 
in  a  letter  to  General  Washington  dated  Paris,  May  2,  1788 — 
"  I  was  much  an  enemy  to  monarchies  before  I  came  to  Eu- 
rope. I  am  ten  thousand  times  more  so,  since  1  have  seen 
what  they  are.  There  is  scarcely  an  evil  known  in  these 
countries  which  may  not  be  traced  to  their  king  as  its  source, 
nor  a  good  which  is  not  derived  from  the  small  fibres  of  repub- 
licanism existing  among  them.  I  can  further  say  with  safety, 
that  there  is  not  a  crowned  head  in  Europe  whose  talents  or 
merits  could  entitle  him  to  be  elected  a  vestry  man  by  the  peo- 
ple of  any  parish  in  America." 

In  a  letter  from  the  same  distinguished  character  to  Gov- 
ernor Langdon  of  JVew  Hampshire,  in  1810,  he  says, — 
"  When  I  observed  that  the  King  of  England  was  a  cipher,  I 
did  not  mean  to  confine  the  observation  to  the  mere  individual 
now  on  the  throne.  The  practice  of  kings  marrying  only 
into  the  family  of  kings,  has  been  that  of  Europe  for  some 
centuries.  Now,  take  any  race  of  animals,  confine  them  in 
idleness  and  inaction,  whether  in  a  stye,  a  stable,  or  a  state 
room, — pamper  them  with  high  diet,  gratify  all  their  appetites, 
immerse  them  in  sensuaUties,  nourish  their  passions,  let  every 
thing  bend  before  them,  and  banish  whatever  might  lead  them 
to  think,  and  in  a  few  generations  they  become  all  body  and 
no  mind  ;  and  this,  too,  by  a  law  of  nature — by  that  very  law 
by  which  we  arc  in  the  constant  practice  of  changing  the  char- 
acters and  propensities  of  the  animals  wc  raise  for  oui'  own  pur- 
poses. Such  is  the  regimen  in  raising  kings,  and  this  is  the 
way  they  have  gone  on  for  centuries.  While  in  Europe,  I  often 
53 


418  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

amused  myself  with  contemplating  the  characters  of  the  then 
reigning  sovereigns  of  Europe.  Leivis  the  Sixteenth  was  a 
fool,  of  my  own  knowledge,  and  in  despite  of  the  answers  made 
for  him  at  his  trial.  The  king  of  Spain  was  a  fool ;  of  Naples 
the  same.  They  passed  their  hves  in  hunting,  and  despatched 
two  couriers  a  week,  1000  miles,  to  let  each  other  know  what 
game  they  had  killed  the  preceding  days.  The  King  of  Sar- 
dinia was  a  fool.  All  these  were  Bourbons.  The  queen  of 
Portugal,  a  Braganza,  was  an  idiot  by  nature  ;  and  so  was  the 
king  of  Denmark.  Their  sons,  as  regents,  exercised  the 
powers  of  government.  The  king  of  Prussia,  successor  to 
the  great  Frederic,  was  a  mere  hog,  in  body  as  well  as  in 
mind.  Gustavus  of  Sweden,  and  Joseph  of  Austria,  were 
really  crazy,  and  George  of  England,  you  know,  was  in  a  strait 
waistcoat. 

"  There  remained,  then,  none  but  old  Catharine,  who  had 
been  too  lately  picked  up  to  have  lost  her  common  sense.  In 
this  state  Bonaparte  found  Europe  j  and  it  was  this  state  of  its 
rulers  which  lost  it  with  scarce  a  struggle.  These  animals 
had  become  without  mind  and  powerless ;  and  so  will  every 
hereditary  monarch  be  after  a  few  generations.  Alexander, 
the  grandson  of  Catharine,  is  yet  an  exception.  He  is  able 
to  hold  his  own.  But  he  is  only  of  the  third  generation.  His 
race  is  not  yet  worn  out.  And  so  endeth  the  book  of  Kings, 
from  all  of  which  the  Lord  deliver  us." 

Although  we  must  not  set  aside  the  moral  character  of  public 
men  in  forming  an  estimate  of  their  merits,  yet  there  is  danger 
of  allowing  too  much  weight,  when  good  or  when  bad.  John 
Wilkes  was  represented  by  the  courtiers,  even  by  Lord  Sand- 
wich, as  too  bad  to  live  at  large,  and  his  sovereign  as  too  good 
not  to  be,  in  a  degree,  worshipped.  Yet  see  how  these  things 
operate.  Had  Wilkes  possessed  a  character  as  good  as  Sir 
George  Saville's,  that,  together  with  his  cause,  the  pen  of  Ju- 
nius, the  eloquence  of  Chatham  and  of  Charles  Fox,  would  have 
placed  George  the  Third  where  Charles  the  Tenth  of  France 
now  is.    The  domestic  character  of  the  British  King,  his  decency 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      419 

and  decorum,  his  assenting  conversation,  and  general  becoming 
behaviour  gave  great  weight  to  whatever  he  dehberately  pro- 
nounced, whether  from  the  throne,  at  the  reception  of  ambas- 
sadors, or  at  the  levee.  Yet  Junius  *  places  this  to  little  ac- 
count, by  an  artful,  and  I  had  like  to  have  said,  malignant  allusion 
to  the  characters  of  King  Edward  the  Second,  and  Richard 
the  Second,  two  among  the  worst  kings  of  England.  After 
saying  that  George  the  Third,  for  many  months,  heard  nothing 
from  his  people  but  the  language  of  complaint,  he  adds,  that  it 
was  the  daily  triumph  of  his  courtiers  that  he  heard  it  with  an 
indifference  approaching  to  contempt.  He  subjoins ;  "  On  a 
prorogation  of  parliament,  the  members  retire  into  summer 
quarters,  and  rest  from  the  disgraceful  labors  of  the  campaign; 
but  it  is  not  so  with  the  sovereign,  he  has  a  permanent 
existence  ;  he  cannot  withdraw  himself  from  the  complaints, 
the  discontents,  the  reproaches  of  his  subjects  ;  they  pursue  him 
to  his  retirement,  and  invade  his  domestic  happiness."  Junius 
adds  with  as  much  bitterness  as  ability  these  sarcastic  remarks — 
"  A  new  system  has  not  only  been  adopted  in  fact,  but  profess- 
ed upon  principle.  Ministers  are  no  longer  public  servants  of 
the  state,  but  the  private  domestics  of  the  sovereign.  One 
particular  class  of  men  are  permitted  to  call  themselves  "  the 
King^s  friends  ^^  as  if  the  body  of  the  people  were  the  king's 
enemies ;  or  as  if  his  majesty  looked  for  a  resource  or  consola- 
tion in  the  attachment  of  a  few  favorites,  against  the  general 
contempt  and  detestation  of  his  subjects.  Edward  and  Rich- 
ard the  Second  made  the  same  distinction  between  the  collec- 
tive body  of  the  people,  and  a  contempdble  party  who  sur- 
rounded the  throne.  The  event  of  this  mistaken  conduct 
might  have  been  a  warning  to  their  successors.  Yet  the  errors 
of  those  princes  were  not  without  excuse.  They  had  as  many 
false  friends  as  George  the  Third,  and  infinitely  greater  tempta- 
tions to  seduce  them.  They  were  neither  sober,  religious,  nor 
demure.  Intoxicated  with  pleasure,  they  wasted  their  inheiit- 
ance  in  pursuit  of  it.     Their  lives  were  like  a  rapid  torrent, 

*  Letter  XXXIX. 


420  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

brilliant  in  prospect,  though  useless  or  dangerous  in  its  course. 
In  the  dull,  unanimated  existence  of  other  princes,  we  see 
nothing  but  a  sickly,  stagnant  water,  which  taints  the  atmo- 
sphere without  fertilizing  the  soil.  The  morality  of  a  king  is 
not  to  be  measured  by  vulgar  rules.  His  situation  is  singular. 
There  are  faults  that  do  him  honor,  and  virtues  that  disgrace 
him. — A  faultless,  insipid  equality  in  his  character,  is  neither 
capable  of  vice  nor  virtue  in  the  extreme. — Secluded  from  the 
world,  attached  from  his  infancy  to  one  set  of  persons,  and 
one  set  of  ideas,  he  can  never  open  his  heart  to  new  connexions, 
nor  his  mind  to  better  information.  A  character  of  this  sort  is 
the  soil  fittest  to  produce  that  obstinate  bigotry  in  politics  and 
religion,  which  begins  with  a  meritorious  sacrifice  of  the  under- 
standing, and  finally  conducts  the  monarch  and  the  martyr  to 
the  block. 

"  At  any  other  period,  I  doubt  not  the  scandalous  disorders 
which  have  been  introduced  into  the  government  of  all  the 
dependencies  in  the  empire  would  have  roused  the  attention  of 
the  public.  The  odious  abuse  and  prostitution  of  the  prerog- 
ative at  home,  the  unconstitutional  employment  of  the  military, 
the  arbitrary  fines  and  commitments  by  the  House  of  Lords, 
and  Court  of  King's  Bench,  the  mercy  of  a  chaste  and  pious 
prince  extended  cheerfully  to  a  wilful  murderer,  because  that 
murderer  is  the  brother  of  a  common  prostitute,  would  I  think, 
at  any  other  time,  have  excited  universal  indignation.  But 
the  daring  attack  upon  the  constitution,  in  the  Middlesex  elec- 
tion, makes  us  callous  and  indifferent  to  inferior  grievances. 
No  man  regards  an  eruption  upon  the  surface  when  the  noble 
parts  are  invaded,  and  he  feels  a  mortification  approaching  to 
his  heart."  * 

*  See  Junius  to  the  Duke  of  Grafton,  Letter  VIII,  on  the  King's  par- 
doning Edward  McQuirk  for  the  murder  of  George  Clark.  McQuirk 
had  been  active  in  a  mob  at  Brentford,  on  the  ministerial  side  in  the 
election  of  Wilkes,  and  his  pardon  was  very  generally  execrated, 
while  the  King  would  not  grant  a  pardon  to  the  twin  brother  of  Daniel 
Perreau  (a  man  in  gay  life  condemned  for  forgery)  who  was  in  no 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.  421 

From  what  has  been  said,  collected  from  Junius,  and  other 
high  authorities,  the  American  reader  will  be  able  to  see  in  a 
narrow  compass,  the  causes  of  that  discontent  of  the  people  of 
England,  which  commenced  soon  after  the  accession  of  King 
George  the  Third,  and  prevailed,  more  or  less,  from  that  period 
to  the  time  when  he  was  compelled,  sorely  against  his  will,  to 
relinquish  the  contest  with  America  ;  because  he  could  find  no 
man  of  sufficient  hardihood  to  become  his  minister  for  carrying 
it  on.  After  the  capture  of  the  second  army,  under  Earl  Corn- 
wallis,  the  least  gleam  of  success  in  Georgia  or  in  the  Carolinas, 
gave  fresh  hopes,  and  renewed   force  to  the  monarch's  ruhng 

way  implicated  in  the  crime  ;  but  perjured  himself  to  save,  as  he  hoped^ 
his  brother  Robert  from  the  gallows.  This  gentleman  was  a  respectable 
practitioner  of  physic  in  London,  kept  his  carriage,  had  numerous  friends, 
and  was  much  esteemed.  Though  condemned  as  an  accessary,  no  one 
believed  that  he  would  be  hanged  for  a  lie.  But  the  public  were  disap- 
pointed. The  pity  excited  by  Dr.  Perreau's  hard  fate  was  universal,  and 
his  execution  was  deeply  deprecated.  The  indignation,  horror,  and  dis- 
gust at  the  moving  sight  of  the  two  twin  brothers  swung  off  holding  each 
other  by  the  hands,  in  despite  of  the  earnest  intercession  of  thousands, 
were  loud,  deep,  and  universal.  The  feeling  in  the  individual,  who  denied 
the  prayer  of  the  people,  was  not  akin  to  that  which  impelled  Junius 
Brutus  to  order  the  execution  of  his  own  son.  It  was  nearer  that  of 
Pharaoh,  whose  hardness  of  heart  brought  plagues  innumerable  upon 
the  land  he  misgoverned.  I  would  not  deprive  a  merciful  king  of  a  jot 
of  praise  merited.  George  the  Third  granted  a  pardon  to  a  certain  sex- 
ton and  his  partner  "  a  resurrection-man,^^  who  were  under  sentence  ta 
be  tvhipped  round  the  bounds  of  a  parish,  for  taking  from  a  grave  the 
body  of  a  female  for  one  of  his  best  customers  to  dissect.  The  anato- 
mist wlio  employed  the  man  was  physician  to  the  Queen,  a  Scotch- 
man, and  a  distinguished  favorite  in  the  royal  family,  having  admirable 
powers  of  mimetical  story-telling,  which  he  often  exercised  to  the  great 
diversion  of  thefrsl  man  in  the  realm.  The  Doctor  upon  his  knees  most 
earnestly  implored  the  pardon  of  these  men,  urging  that  the  streets  were 
filled  with  people  ready  to  tear  the  culprits  to  pieces  for  a  deed  to  them 
80  abhorrent,  but  necessary  to  him  as  a  teacher,  being,  by  the  king's  ap- 
pointment, anatomical  lecturer  to  the  Royal  Academy  of  painting;  and 
the  offenders  were  pardoned  accordingly,  however  singular  in  the  history 
of  Royal  grace ! 


422      CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

passion,  the  subjugation  of  America,  and  his  imagined  fruits  of 
a  rich  revenue.  But  alas  !  the  shortsightedness  of  man,  and 
the  miscalculation  of  princes  ! — The  Alchymists  of  the  middle 
ages  sought  for  ^o/f/  and  found  gun-powder,  and  so  it  happened 
with  George  the  Third  in  his  dreams  of  riches  to  be  drawn  from 
America.  I  however  put  a  more  charitable  construction  on  most 
of  the  errors  of  the  king  than  Junius  has.  I  believe  that  the  seeds 
of  INSANITY  had  sprouted  earlier  than  the  ministry,  or  the  peo- 
ple generally,  were  apprized  of.  In  1781,  if  I  am  not  mistaken 
by  a  year,  the  king  turned  over  two  leaves  of  his  largely  writ- 
ten speech  from  the  throne  without  ever  knowing  it.  The 
hearers  were  surprised  at  its  brevity,  and  the  minister  mortified. 
Several  members  of  Parliament  in  the  year  1782,  used  freely 
the  word  insanity,  and  William  Pht  the  younger,  speaking  of 
the  renewal  of  the  war,  called  it  a  species  of  obstinacy,  border- 
ing upon  madness  ;  and  so  did  Sir  George  Saville. 

Such  were  the  sentiments  of  the  most  illustrious  of  the  Eng- 
lish nation,  respecting  the  great  American  Question,  and  the 
conduct  of  the  King.  It  would  be  a  departure  from  justice  if 
we  did  not  record  our  oivn  complaints,  and  the  reasons  of  our 
resistance  and  final  separation  from  Great  Britain,  as  deliber- 
ately and  solemnly  proclaimed  in  our  Declaration  of  Indc' 
pendence. 

"  The  history  of  the  present  king  of  Great  Britain, 

is  a  history  of  repeated  injuries  and  usurpations,  all  having  in 
direct  object  the  establishment  of  an  absolute  tyranny  over 
these  states.  To  prove  this,  let  facts  be  submitted  to  a  candid 
world. 

"  He  has  refused  his  assent  to  laws  the  most  wholesome 
and  necessary  for  the  public  good. 

"  He  has  forbidden  his  governors  to  pass  laws  of  im- 
mediate and  pressing  importance,  unless  suspended  in  their 
operation,  till  his  assent  should  be  obtained ;  and  when  so  sus- 
pended, he  has  utterly  neglected  to  attend  to  them.  He  has 
refused  to  pass  other  laws  for  the  accommodation  of  large 
districts  _  of  people,  unless  those  people  would  relinquish  the 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      433 

right  of  representation  in  the  legislature  ;  a  right  inestimable 
to  them,  and  Ibrniidable  to  tyrants  only. 

"  He  has  called  together  legislative  bodies  at  places  un- 
usual, uncomfortable,  and  distant  from  the  depository  of 
their  pubhc  records,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  fatiguing  them  into 
compliance  with  his  measures. 

"  He  has  dissolved  representative  houses  repeatedly,  for 
opposing,  with  manly  firmness,  his  invasions  on  the  rights  of 
the  people. 

"  He  has  refused,  for  a  long  time  after  such  dissolutions, 
to  cause  others  to  be  elected ;  whereby  the  legislative 
powers,  incapable  of  annihilation,  have  returned  to  the  people 
at  large,  for  their  exercise  j  the  state  remaining,  in  the  mean 
time,  exposed  to  all  the  dangers  of  invasion  from  without,  and 
convulsions  within. 

"  He  has  endeavoured  to  prevent  the  population  of  these 
states  ;  for  that  purpose  obstructing  the  laws  for  naturalization 
of  foreigners ;  refusing  to  pass  others  to  encourage  their 
migrations  hither,  and  raising  the  conditions  of  new  appropria- 
tions of  lands. 

"  He  has  obstructed  the  administration  of  justice,  by  refusing 
his  assent  to  laws  for  establishing  judiciary  powers. 

"  He  has  made  judges  dependent  on  his  will  alone,  for 
the  tenure  of  their  offices,  and  the  amount  and  payment  of 
their  salaries. 

"  He  has  erected  a  multitude  of  new  offices,  and  sent  hither 
swarms  of  officers,  to  harass  our  people,  and  eat  out  their 
substance. 

"  He  has  kept  among  us,  in  times  of  peace,  standing  armies, 
without  the  consent  of  our  legislatures. 

"  He  has  affected  to  render  the  military  independent  of,  and 
superior  to  the  civil  power. 

"  He  has  combined  with  others  to  subject  us  to  a  jurisdic- 
tion foreign  to  our  constitutions,  and   unacknowledged  by  our 
laws  ;  giving  his  assent  to  their  acts  of  pretended  legislation  j 
"For  quartering  large  bodies  of  armed  troops  among  us: 


424  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

"  For  protecting  them,  by  a  mock  trial,  from  punishment 
for  any  murders  which  they  should  commit  on  the  inhabitants 
of  these  states  : 

"  For  cutting  off  our  trade  with  all  parts  of  the  world  : 
"  For  imposing  taxes  on  us  without  our  consent : 
"  For  depriving  us,  in  many  cases,  of  the  benefits  of  trial 
by  jury  : 

"  For  transporting  us  beyond  seas  to  be  tried  for  pretend- 
ed offences  : 

"  For  abolishing  the  free  system  of  English  laws  in  a 
neighbouring  province,  establishing  therein  an  arbitrary  gov- 
ernment, and  enlarging  its  boundaries,  so  as  to  render  it 
at  once  an  example  and  fit  instrument  for  introducing  the 
same  absolute  rule  into  these  colonies  : 

"  For  taking  away  our  charters,  abolishing  our  most  valu- 
able laws,  and  altering,  fundamentally,  the  forms  of  our 
governments  : 

"  For  suspending  our  own  legislatures,  and  declaring 
themselves  invested  with  power  to  legislate  for  us  in  all  cases 
whatsoever. 

"  He  has  abdicated  government  here,  by  declaring  us  out  of 
his  protection,  and  waging  war  against  us. 

"  He  has  plundered  our  seas,  ravaged  out  coasts,  burnt  our 
towns,  and  destroyed  the  lives  of  our  people. 

"  He  is,  at  this  time,  transporting  large  armies  of  foreign 
mercenaries  to  complete  the  works  of  death,  desolation,  and 
tyranny,  already  begun  with  circumstances  of  cruelty  and  per- 
fidy, scarcely  paralleled  in  the  most  barbarous  ages,  and  totally 
unworthy  the  head  of  a  civilized  nation. 

"  He  has  constrained  our  fellow-citizens,  taken  captive  on 
the  high  seas,  to  bear  arms  against  their  country,  to  become 
the  executioners  of  their  friends  and  brethren,  or  to  fall  them- 
selves by  their  hands. 

"  He  has  excited  domestic  insurrections  amongst  us,  and 
has  endeavoured  to  bring  on  the  inhabitants  of  our  frontiers, 
the  merciless  Indian   savages,  whose  known  rule  of  warfare 


CHARACTER  AND  POLICY  OF  GEORGE  III.      425 

is  an  undistinguished  destruction  of  all  ages,  sexes,  and  con- 
ditions. 

"  In  every  stage  of  these  oppressions  we  have  petitioned  for 
redress  in  the  most  humble  terms  :  our  repeated  petitions  have 
been  answered  only  by  repeated  injury.  A  prince,  whose 
character  is  thus  marked  by  every  act  vv^hich  may  define  a  ty- 
rant, is  unfit  to  be  the  ruler  of  a  free  people." 

We  have  recorded  the  accusation  or  allegation  against 
George  the  Third,  our  former  king,  as  manifested  to  the 
world  July  4,  1776,  by  the  representatives  of  the  American 
people  in  Congress  assembled,  in  the  form  of  a  solemn  Decla- 
ration of  our  Independency.  Lest  it  should  appear  to  contain 
too  deep  marks  of  resentment,  we  think  it  fair,  in  our  justifi- 
cation, to  record  also  the  sentiments  of  an  illustrious  English- 
man, we  mean  the  great  reformer  Junius,  respecting  the 
general  conduct  of  his  sovereign,  as  nobly  expressed  in  his 
famous  Letter  to  the  King,  in  order  to  show  that  we  were 
not  the  only  subjects  of  that  monarch  who  had  cause  of  com- 
plaint, and  that  the  Whigs,  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic,  w^ere 
animated  by    the  same  sacred  principle  of  liberty. 

We  ask  the  reader  to  set  before  his  chastened  imagination 
the  character  and  person  of  any  and  every  one  of  those  to 
whom  the  authorship  of  this  far-famed  address  has  been  attrib- 
uted :  and  after  fixing  in  his  mind  the  dignity  of  the  scene, 
let  him  ask  himself  whether  he  can  admit  any  one  of  them  to  the 
honor  of  being  the  Mentor  to  a  good-intentioned,  moral,  but  mis- 
guided king  ;  and  whether  our  original  hypothesis  (for  we  claim 
to  have  made  the  discovery,  hy  induction,)  be  not  reconcilable 
to  his  feelings  and  judgment,  viz.  that  Lord  Chatham  was  this 
venerable  father  advising  a  son.  The  picture  has  impressed  my 
imagination  nearly  forty  years — an  Aristotle  advising,  admonish- 
ing, and  controlling  inn  Alexander; — ^  Magus  respectfully,  kindly 
advising,  and  conscientiously  admonishing  a  young,  inexperi- 
enced Eastern  king — a  monarch  with  an  honest  heart,  a  very 
confined  horizon,  and  surrounded  with  bad  examples.  To 
54 


426  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  FIIS  LETTERS. 

express  our  ideas  mythologically  ; — it  was  Minerva  in  the  shape 
o^ Mentor,  cautioning,  advising,  and  lamenting  over  his  beloved 
Telemachus,  who  was  left  in  his  cradle  to  be  educated  by  his 
mother  and  other  women,  while  his  knight-errant  of  a  father 
was  roaming  over  the  world  in  search  of  renown. 

Upon  this  idea  of  a  venerable  sage  and  most  eminent  states- 
man, exceeding  all  others  in  political  knowledge,  native  talents, 
matchless  industry,  happy  eloquence,  tried  integrity,  disinter- 
ested patriotism,  unsullied  morals,  proud  honor,  and  courage 
of  all  kinds,  is  there  not  a  congruity,  a  naturalness,  and  consis- 
tency throughout  the  whole  procedure  of  Junius  towards  the 
king,  and  towards  worse  men  ?  Him  he  treats  with  constitu- 
tional regard  and  respect,  while  he  takes  the  dissecting  scalpel  to 
others,  whom,  after  exposing  their  morbid  condition,  he  has  pre- 
served as  so  many  dried  preparations  for  the  instruction  of  those 
ministers  and  courtiers  who  shall  come  after  them.  No  man 
hitherto  guessed  to  be  Junius  will  bear  our  test.  Weighed  in 
the  balance,  they  have  all  been  found  wanting.  During  nearly 
forty  years  I  have  scanned  them  all,  after  my  first  suspicion 
that  the  celebrated  eulogy  on  Lord  Chatham  in  \he  fifty -fourth 
letter  of  Junius  was  a  se.pse  portrait.  This  our  opinion  frees 
us  from  innumerable  difficulties  which  incumber  every  other  hy- 
pothesis, every  one  else  marring  the  noble  picture.  Our  hypoth- 
esis would  read  well  in  poetry,  look  well  upon  canvass,  and  still 
better  in  chaste  history,  provided  the  idea  of  a  conscientious  Re- 
former be  never,  for  a  moment,  lost  sight  of,  and  that  of  a  malig- 
nant satirist  and  cowardly  assassin  be  put  entirely  out  of  the 
question.  The  deep  disease — the  something  rotten  in  the  state  of 
Britain,  called  loudly  for  such  a  Hercules  in  politics  ;  and  his 
salutiferous  deeds  have  been,  and  long  will  be,  operative  in 
these  United  States,  and  are  actually  now  operating  good  in 
the  best  part  of  Europe. 

It  is  a  saying  almost  proverbial,  that  heavenly  inspiration  has 
ceased  in  these  latter  days.  I  do  not  believe  it.  I  beheve 
that  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty  still  giveth  extraordinary 
understanding  : — nor  can  I  ever  believe  that  Columbus,   Chat- 


JUNIUS  TO  THE  KING.  427 

ham,  and  JYapoleon  gave  to  themselves  those  superior  powers 
of  mind,  which  have  effected,  and  are  still  effecting,  mighty 
changes  in  the  affliirs  of  men. — But  I  keep  the  reader  too 
long  from  the  sight  of  a  solid  structure,  which,  like  some  of  the 
venerable  temples  of  antiquity,  would  have  been  debased  by 
a  profusion  of  ornament. 

TO 

THE  Printer  of  the  Public  Advertiser.* 

"  19  December,  1769. 
"  When  the  complaints  of  a  brave  and  powerful  people  are 
observed  to  increase  in  proportion  to  the  wrongs  they  have 
suffered  ;  when,  instead  of  sinking  into  submission,  they  are 
roused  to  resistance  ;  the  time  will  soon  arrive,  at  which  every 
inferior  consideration  must  yield  to  the  security  of  the  sove- 
reign, and  to  the  general  safety  of  the  state.  There  is  a  mo- 
ment of  difficulty  and  danger,  at  which  flattery  and  falsehood 
can  no  longer  deceive,  and  simplicity  itself  can  no  longer  be 
misled.  Let  us  suppose  it  arrived.  Let  us  suppose  a  gra- 
cious, well-intentioned  Prince,  made  sensible  at  last  of  the 
great  duty  he  owes  to  his  people,  and  of  his  own  disgraceful 
situation  :  that  he  looks  round  him  for  asistance  ;  and  asks 
for  no  advice,  but  how  to  gratify  the  wishes,  and  secure  the 
happiness  of  his  subjects.  In  these  circumstances,  it  may  be 
matter  of  curious  speculation  to  consider,  if  an  honest  man 
were  permitted  to  approach  a  king,  in  wdiat  terms  he  would 
address  himself  to  his  sovereign.  Let  it  be  imagined,  no 
matter  how  improbable,  that  the  first  prejudice  against  his 
character  is  removed  ;  that  the  ceremonious  difficulties  of  an 
audience  are  surmounted ;  that  he  feels  himself  animated  by 
the  purest  and  most  honorable  affections  to  his  King  and  coun- 
try ;  and  that  the  great  person  whom  he  addresses  has  spirit 
enough  to  bid  him  speak  freely,  and  understanding  enough  to 
listen  to  him  with  attention.     Unacquainted  with  the  vain  im- 

*  Letter  XXXV. 


428  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

pertinence  of  forms,  he  would  deliver  his  sentiments  with  dig- 
nity and  firmness,  but  not  without  respect." 

"  Sib, 

"  It  is  the  misfortune  of  your  life,  and  originally  the  cause  of 
every  reproach  and  distress  which  has  attended  your  govern- 
ment, that  you  should  never  have  been  acquainted  with  the 
language  of  truth,  until  you  heard  it  in  the  complaints  of  your 
people.  It  is  not,  however,  too  late  to  correct  the  error  of 
your  education.  We  are  still  inclined  to  make  an  indulgent 
allowance  for  the  pernicious  lessons  you  received  in  your 
youth,  and  to  form  the  most  sanguine  hopes  from  the  natural 
benevolence  of  your  disposition.*  We  are  far  from  thinking 
you  capable  of  a  direct,  deliberate  purpose,  to  invade  those 
original  rights  of  your  subjects,  on  which  all  their  civil  and 
political  liberties  depend.  Had  it  been  possible  for  us  to  en- 
tertain a  suspicion  so  dishonorable  to  your  character,  we  should 


"  *  The  plan  of  tutelage  and  future  dominion  over  the  heir  apparent, 
laid  many  years  ago  at  Carleton- House,  between  the  Princess  Dowa- 
ger and  her  favorite  the  Earl  of  Bute,  was  as  gross  and  palpable,  as 
that  which  was  concerted  between  Anne  of  Austria  and  Cardinal  Ma- 
zarin,  to  govern  Lewis  the  Fourteenth,  and  in  effect  to  prolong  his 
minority  until  the  end  of  their  lives.  That  prince  had  strong  natural 
parts,  and  used  frequently  to  blush  for  his  own  ignorance  and  want  of 
education,  which  had  been  wilfully  neglected  by  his  mother  and  her 
minion.  A  little  experience,  however,  soon  showed  him  how  shamefully 
he  had  been  treated,  and  for  what  infamous  purposes  he  had  been  kept 
in  ignorance.  Our  great  Edward,  too,  at  an  early  period,  had  sense 
enough  to  understand  the  nature  of  the  connexion  between  his  aban- 
doned mother  and  the  detested  Mortimer.  But,  since  that  time,  hu- 
man nature,  we  may  observe,  is  greatly  altered  for  the  better.  Dowa- 
gers may  be  chaste,  and  minions  may  be  honest.  When  it  was  proposed 
to  settle  the  present  king's  household  as  Prince  of  Wales,  it  is  well 
known  that  the  Earl  of  Bute  was  forced  into  it,  in  direct  contradiction 
to  the  late  king's  inclination.  That  was  the  salient  point,  from  which 
all  the  mischiefs  and  disgraces  of  the  present  reign  took  life  and  mo- 
tion. From  that  moment,  Lord  Bute  never  suffered  the  Prince  of 
Wales  to  be  an  instant  out  of  his  sight We  need  not  look  farther." 


JUNIUS  TO  THE  KING.  429 

long  since  have  adopted  a  style  of  remonstrance  very  distant 
from  the  humility  of  complaint.  The  doctrine  inculcated  by  our 
laws,  that  the  King  can  do  no  wrong,  is  admitted  without  reluc- 
tance. We  separate  the  amiable,  good-natured  Prince,  from 
the  folly  and  treachery  of  his  servants  ;  and  the  private  virtues 
of  the  man,  from  the  vices  of  his  government.  Were  it  not  for 
this  just  distinction,  I  know  not  whether  your  Majesty's  condi- 
tion, or  tiiat  of  the  Enghsh  nation,  would  deserve  most  to  be 
lamented.  I  would  prepare  your  mind  for  a  favorable  recep- 
tion of  truth,  by  removing  every  painful,  offensive  idea,  of 
personal  reproacli.  Your  subjects,  Sir,  wish  for  nothing  but 
that,  as  they  are  reasonable  and  affectionate  enough  to  sep- 
arate your  person  from  your  government,  so  you,  in  your 
turn,  should  distinguish  between  the  conduct  which  becomes 
the  permanent  dignity  of  a  King,  and  that  which  serves 
only  to  promote  the  temporary  interest  and  miserable  ambition 
of  a  minister. 

"  You  ascended  the  throne  with  a  declared,  and,  I  doubt 
not,  a  sincere  resolution,  of  giving  universal  satisftiction  to  your 
subjects.  You  found  them  pleased  with  the  novelty  of  a  young 
Prince,  whose  countenance  promised  even  more  than  his  words; 
and  loyal  to  you,  not  only  from  principle,  but  passion.  It  was 
not  a  cold  profession  of  allegiance  to  the  first  magistrate  ;  but 
a  partial,  animated  attachment,  to  a  favorite  Prince,  the  native 
of  their  country.  They  did  not  wait  to  examine  your  conduct, 
nor  to  be  determined  by  experience  ;  but  gave  you  a  generous 
credit  for  the  future  blessings  of  your  reign,  and  paid  you  in 
advance  the  dearest  tribute  of  their  affections.  Such,  Sir,  was 
once  the  disposition  of  a  people,  who  now  surround  your 
throne  with  reproaches  and  complaints.  Do  justice  to  your- 
self. Banish  from  your  mind  those  unworthy  opinions,  with 
which  some  interested  persons  have  labored  to  possess  you. 
Distrust  the  men,  who  tell  you  that  the  English  are  naturally 

light   and  inconstant ; that  they  complain  without  a  cause. 

Withdraw  your  confidence  equally  from  all  parties  ;  from  min- 


430  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

isters,  favorites,  and  relations :  and  let  there  be  one  moment 
in  your  life,  in  which  you  have  consulted  your  own  under- 
standing. 

"  When  you  affectedly  renounced  the  name  of  Englishman, 
believe  me,  Sir,  you  were  persuaded  to  pay  a  very  ill-judged 
compliment  to  one  part  of  your  subjects,  at  the  expense  of 
another.  While  the  natives  of  Scotland  are  not  in  actual  re- 
bellion, they  are  undoubtedly  entitled  to  protection  ;  nor  do  I 
mean  to  condemn  the  policy  of  giving  some  encouragement  to 
the  novelty  of  their  affections  for  the  House  of  Hanover.  I  am 
ready  to  hope  for  every  thing  from  their  new-born  zeal,  and 
from  the  future  steadiness  of  their  allegiance.  But,  hitherto, 
they  have  no  claim  to  your  favor.  To  honor  them  with  a  de- 
termined predilection  and  confidence,  in  exclusion  of  your 
English  subjects,  who  placed  your  family,  and  in  spite  of 
treachery  and  rebellion  iiave  supported  it,  upon  the  throne, 
is  a  mistake  too  gross,  even  for  the  unsuspecting  generosity  of 
youth.  In  this  error,  we  see  a  capital  violation  of  tlie  most 
obvious  rules  of  policy  and  prudence.  We  trace  it,  however, 
to  an  original  bias  in  your  education,  and  are  ready  to  allow 
for  yoUr  inexperience. 

"  To  the  same  early  Influence  we  attribute  it,  that  you  have 
descended  to  take  a  share,  not  only  in  the  narrow  views  and 
interests  of  particular  persons,  but  in  the  fatal  malignity  of  their 
passions.  At  your  accession  to  the  throne,  the  whole  system 
of  government  was  altered  ;  not  from  wisdom  or  deliberation, 
but  because  it  had  been  adopted  by  your  predecessor.  A  little 
personal  motive  of  pique  and  resentment  was  sufficient  to 
remove  the  ablest  servants  of  the  Crown  ;  *  but  it  is  not  in 
this   country.  Sir,  that  such   men   can    be   dishonored  by  the 

"*  One  of  the  first  acts  of  the  present  reign  was  to  dismiss  Mr. 
Legge,  because  he  had,  some  years  before,  refused  to  yield  his  interest 
in  Hampshire  to  a  Scotchman  recommended  by  Lord  Bute.  This  was 
the  reason  publicly  assigned  by  his  Lordship." 


JUNIUS  TO  THE  KING.  43I 

frowns  of  a  king.  They  were  dismissed,  but  could  not  be 
disgraced.  Without  entering  into  a  minuter  discussion  of  the 
merits  of  the  peace,  we  may  observe,  in  the  imprudent  liurry 
with  which  the  first  overtures  from  France  were  accepted,  in 
Hhe  conduct  of  the  negotiation  and  terms  of  the  treaty,  the 
strongest  marks  of  that  precipitate  spirit  of  concession  with 
which  a  certain  part  of  your  subjects  have  been  at  all  times 
ready  to  purchase  a  peace  with  the  natural  enemies  of  this 
country.  On  your  part,  we  are  satisfied  that  every  thing  was 
honoi'able  and  sincere  ;  and,  if  England  was  sold  to  France, 
we  doubt  not  that  your  Majesty  was  equally  betrayed.  The 
conditions  of  the  peace  were  matter  of  grief  and  surprise  to 
your  subjects,  but  not  the  immediate  cause  of  their  present  dis- 
content, 

"  Hitherto,  Sir,  you  had  been  sacrificed  to  the  prejudices 
and  passions  of  others.  With  what  firmness  will  you  bear  the 
mention  of  your  own  ? 

"  A  man,  not  very  honorably  distinguished  in  the  world,  com- 
mences an  attack  upon  your  favorite  ;  considering  nothing,  but 
how  he  might  best  expose  his  person  and  principles  to  detesta- 
tion, and  the  national  character  of  his  countrymen  to  contempt. 
The  natives  of  that  country,  Sir,  are  as  much  distinguished  by 
a  peculiar  character,  as  by  your  majesty's  favor.  Like  ano- 
ther chosen  people,  they  have  been  conducted  into  the  land  of 
plenty,  where  tliey  find  themselves  efl^ectually  marked,  and  di- 
vided from  mankind.  There  is  hardly  a  period  at  which  the 
most  irregular  character  may  not  be  redeemed.  The  mistakes 
of  one  sex  find  a  retreat  in  ])atriotism  ;  those  of  the  other,  in 
devotion.  Mr.  Wilkes  brought  with  him  into  politics,  the  same 
liberal  sentiments  by  which  his  private  conduct  had  been  di- 
rected ;  and  seemed  to  think  that,  as  there  are  fow  excesses  in 
which  an  English  gentleman  may  not  be  permitted  to  indulge,  the 
same  latitude  was  allowed  him  in  the  choice  of  his  political  prin- 
ciples, and  in  the  spirit  of  maintaining  them I  mean  to  state, 

• 


432  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

not  entirely  to  defend,  his  conduct.     In  the  earnestness  of  his 
zeal,  he  suffered   some  unwarrantable  insinuations   to  escape 
him.     He  said   more  than  moderate  men  would  justify  ;  but 
not  enough  to  entitle  him  to  the  honor  of  your  Majesty's  per- 
sonal  resentment.     The   rays  of  royal  indignation,    collected 
upon  him,  served  only  to  illuminate,  and  could  not  consume. 
Animated  by  the  favor  of  the  people  on  one  side,  and  heated 
by  persecution  on  the  other,  his  views  and  sentiments  changed 
with  his  situation.     Hardly  serious  at  first,  he  is  now  an  en- 
thusiast.    The  coldest  bodies  warm  with  opposition,  the  hard- 
est sparkle  in  collision.      There   is  a   holy   mistaken  zeal  in 
politics  as  well  as  religion.     By  persuading  others,  we  convince 
ourselves.     The  passions  are  engaged,  and  create  a  maternal 
affection  in  the  mind,  which  forces  us  to  love  the  cause  for 
which  we  suffer.... Is  this  a  contention  w^orthy  of  a  king  ?     Are 
you  not  sensible   how  much  the  meanness  of  the  cause  gives 
an  air  of  ridicule  to  the  serious  difhcuhies  into  which  you  have 
been  betrayed  ?     The  destruction  of  one  man  has  been  now, 
for  many  years,  the  sole  object  of  your  government ;  and,  if 
there  can  be  any  thing  still  more  disgraceful,  we  have  seen,  for 
such  an  object,  the  utmost  influence  of  the  executive  power, 
and  every  ministerial  artifice,  exerted  without  success.     Nor 
can  you  ever  succeed,  unless  he  should  be  imprudent  enough 
to  forfeit  the  protection  of  those  laws  to  which  you  owe  your 
crown,  or  unless  your  ministers  should  persuade  you  to  make 
it  a  question  of  force  alone,  and  try  the  whole  strength  of  gov- 
ernment in  opposition  to  the  people.     The  lessons  he  has  re- 
ceived  from  experience,  will  probably   guard  him  from  such 
excess   of  folly  ;  and,    in   your  Majesty's  virtues,  we  find  an 
unquestionable  assurance,  that  no  illegal  violence  will  be  at- 
tempted. 

"  Far  from  suspecting  you  of  so  horrible  a  design,  we  would 
attribute  the  continued  violation  of  the  laws,  and  even  this  last 
enormous  attack  upon  the  vital  principles  of  the  constitution, 
to  an  ill-advised,  unworthy,  personal  resentment.     From  one 


JUNIUS  TO  THE  KING.  433 

false  step  yoa  have  been  betrayed  into  another  ;  and,  as  the 
cause  was  unworthy  of  you,  your  ministers  were  determined 
that  the  prudence  of  the  execution  should  correspond  with  the 
wisdom  and  dignity  of  the  design.  They  have  reduced  you  to 
the  necessity  of  choosing  out  of  a  variety  of  difficulties  ;....to 
a  situation  so  unhappy,  that  you  can  neither  do  wrong  without 
ruin,  nor  right  without  affliction.  These  worthy  servants  have 
undoubtedly  given  you  many  singular  proofs  of  their  abiUties. 
Not  contented  with  making  Mr.  Wilkes  a  man  of  importance, 
they  have  judiciously  transferred  the  question,  from  the  rights 
and  interests  of  one  man,  to  the  most  important  rights  and 
interests  of  the  people  ;  and  forced  your  subjects,  from  wishing 
well  to  the  cause  of  an  individual,  to  unite  with  him  in  their 
own.  Let  them  proceed  as  they  have  begun,  and  your  majesty- 
need  not  doubt  that  the  catastrophe  will  do  a  dishonor  to  the 
conduct  of  the  piece. 

"  The  circumstances  to  which  you  are  reduced  will  not  ad- 
mit of  a  compromise  with  the  English  nation.  Undecisive, 
qualifying  measures,  will  disgrace  your  government  still  more 
than  open  violence  ;  and,  without  satisfying  the  people,  will 
excite  their  contempt.  They  have  too  much  understanding 
and  spirit  to  accept  of  an  indirect  satisfaction  for  a  direct  injury. 
Nothing  less  than  a  repeal,  as  formal  as  the  resolution  itself, 
can  heal  the  wound  that  has  been  given  to  the  constitution,  nor 
will  any  thing  less  be  accepted.  I  can  readily  believe,  that 
there  is  an  influence  sufficient  to  recall  their  pernicious  vote. 
The  House  of  Commons  undoubtedly  consider  their  duty  to 
the  crown  as  paramount  to  all  other  obligations.  To  us  they 
are  only  indebted  for  an  accidental  existence,  and  have  justly 
transferred  their  gratitude  from  their  parents  to  their  benefac- 
tors  from  those  who  gave  them  birth,  to  the  minister  from 

whose  benevolence  they  derive  the  comforts  and  pleasures  of 
their  political  life. ...who  has  taken  the  tenderest  care  of  their 
infancy,  and  relieves  their  necessities  without  offending   their 

delicacy.     But,  if  it  were  possible  for  their  integrity  to  be  de- 
55 


434  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

graded  to  a  condition  so  vile  and  abject,  that,  compared  with 
it,  the  present  estimation  they  stand  in  is  a  state  of  honor  and 
respect,  consider.  Sir,  in  what  manner  you  will  afterwards 
proceed.  Can  you  conceive  that  the  people  of  this  country 
will  long  submit  to  be  governed  by  so  flexible  a  House  of 
Commons  ?  It  is  not  in  the  nature  of  human  society,  that  any 
form  of  government,  in  such  circumstances,  can  long  be  pre- 
served. In  ours,  the  general  contempt  of  the  people  is  as 
fatal  as  their  detestation.  Such,  I  am  persuaded,  would  be 
the  necessary  effect  of  any  base  concession  made  by  the  pres- 
ent House  of  Commons  ;  and,  as  a  qualifying  measure  would 
not  be  accepted,  it  remains  for  you  to  decide,  whether  you 
will,  at  any  hazard,  support  a  set  of  men  who  have  reduced 
you  to  this  unhappy  dilemma,  or  whether  you  will  gratify  the 
united  wishes  of  the  whole  people  of  England  by  dissolving 
the  parliament. 

"  Taking   it  for  granted,  as  I  do  very  sincerely,  that  you 
have  personally  no   design   against  the   constitution,   nor  any 
view  inconsistent  with  the  good  of  your   subjects,  I  think  you 
cannot  hesitate  long  upon  the  choice  which  it  equally  concerns 
your  interest  and  your  honor  to  adopt.     On  one  side,  you  haz- 
ard the  affections  of  all  your  English  subjects ;  you  relinquish 
every  hope  of  repose  to  yourself,  and  you  endanger  the  estab- 
lishment of  your  family  for  ever.     All  this  you  venture  for  no 
object  whatsoever,  or  for  such  an  object  as  it  would  be  an  af- 
front to  you  to  name.     Men  of  sense  will  examine  your  con- 
duct with  suspicion ;  while  those  who  are  incapable  of  com- 
prehending to  what  degree  they  are  injured,  afflict  you  with 
clamors  equally  insolent  and  unmeaning.     Supposing  it  possible 
that  no  fatal  struggle  should  ensue,  you  determine  at  once  to 
be  unhappy,  without  the  hope  of  a  compensation  either  from 
interest  or  ambition.     If  an  English  king  be  hated  or  despised, 
he  must  be  unhappy ;  and  this,  perhaps,  is  the  only  political 
truth  which  he  ought  to  be  convinced  of  without  experiment. 
But,  if  the  English  people  should  no  longer  confine  their  re- 


JUNIUS  TO  THE  KING.  435 

sentment  to  a  submissive  representation  of  their  wrongs ;  if, 
following  the  glorious  example  of  their  ancestors,  they  should 
no  longer  appeal  to  the  creature  of  the  constitution,  but  to  that 
high  Being  who  gave  them  the  rights  of  humanity,  whose  gifts 
it  were  sacrilege  to  surrender,  let  me  ask  you,  Sir,  upon  what 
part  of  your  subjects  would  you  rely  for  assistance  ? 

"  The  people  of  Ireland  have  been  uniformly  plundered  and 
oppressed.  In  return,  they  give  you  every  day  fresh  marks 
of  their  resentment.  They  despise  the  miserable  governor 
you  have  sent  them,*  because  he  is  the  creature  of  Lord  Bute  ; 
nor  is  it  from  any  natural  confusion  in  their  ideas,  that  they  are 
so  ready  to  confound  the  original  of  a  king  with  the  disgraceful 
representation  of  him. 

"  The  distance  of  the  Colonics  would  make  it  impossible  for 
them  to  take  an  active  concern  in  your  affairs,  if  they  were  as 
well  affected  to  your  government  as  they  once  pretended  to  be 
to  your  person.  They  were  ready  enough  to  distinguish  be- 
tween you  and  your  ministers.  They  complained  of  an  act  of 
the  Legislature,  but  traced  the  origin  of  it  no  higher  than  to 
the  servants  of  the  crown  :  they  pleased  themselves  with  the 
hope  that  their  sovereign,  if  not  favorable  to  their  cause,  at 
least  was  impartial.  The  decisive  personal  part  you  took 
against  them,  has  effectually  banished  that  first  distinction  from 
their  minds. f     They  consider  you  as  united  with  your  servants 

"  *  Viscount  Townshend,  sent  over  on  the  plan  of  being  resident 
Governor.  The  history  of  his  ridiculous  administration  shall  not  be 
lost  to  the  public." 

"  t  In  the  king's  speech  of  8  November  1768,  it  was  declared, '  That 
the  spirit  of  faction  had  broken  out  afresh  in  some  of  the  Colonies ; 
and,  in  one  of  them,  proceeded  to  acts  of  violence  and  resistance  to 
the  execution  of  the  laws  ; that  Boston  was  in  a  state  of  disobedi- 
ence to  all  law  and  government,  and  had  proceeded  to  measures  sub- 
versive of  the  constitution,  and  attended  with  circumstances  that 
manifested  a  disposition  to  throw  off  their  dependence'  on  Great 
Britain.' " 


436  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

against  America ;  and  know  how  to  distinguish  the  sove- 
reign and  a  venal  parliament  on  one  side,  from  the  real 
sentiments  of  the  English  people  on  the  other.  Looking  for- 
ward to  independence,  they  might  possihly  receive  you  for 
their  king ;  but  if  ever  you  retire  to  America,  be  assured  they 
will  give  you  such  a  covenant  to  digest,  as  the  Presbytery  of 
Scotland  would  have  been  ashamed  to  offer  to  Charles  the 
Second,  They  left  their  native  land  in  search  of  freedom, 
and  found  it  in  a  desert.  Divided  as  they  are  into  a  thousand 
forms  of  policy  and  religion,  there  is  one  point  in  which  they 

all  agree  : they  equally  detest  the  pageantry  of  a  king,  and 

the  supercilious  hypocrisy  of  a  bishop. 

"  It  is  not,  then,  from  the  alienated  affections  of  Ireland  or 
America,  that  you  can  reasonably  look  for  assistance  ;  still  less 
from  the  people  of  England,  who  are  actually  contending  for 
their  rights,  and  in  this  great  question,  are  parties  against  you. 
You  are  not,  however,  destitute  of  every  appearance  of  sup- 
port :  You  have  all  the  Jacobites,  Nonjurors,  Roman  Catho- 
lics, and  Tories,  of  this  country  ;  and  all  Scotland,  without 
exception.  Considering  from  what  family  you  are  descended, 
the  choice  of  your  friends  has  been  singularly  directed  ;  and 
truly.  Sir,  if  you  had  not  lost  the  Whig  interest  of  England,  I 
should  admire  your  dexterity  in  turning  the  hearts  of  your  en- 
emies. Is  it  possible  for  you  to  place  any  confidence  in  men 
who,  before  they  are  faithful  to  you,  must  renounce  every 
opinion,  and  betray  every  principle,  both  in  church  and  state, 
which  they  inherit  from  their  ancestors,  and  are  confirmed  in 
by  their  education  ?  whose  numbers  are  so  inconsiderable,  that 
they  have  long  since  been  obliged  to  give  up  the  principles  and 
language  which  distinguish  them  as  a  party,  and  to  fight  under 
the  banners  of  their  enemies  ?  Their  zeal  begins  with  hypoc- 
risy, and  must  conclude  in  treachery.  At  first  they  deceive  ; 
at  last  they  betray. 


JUNIUS  TO  THE  KING.  437 

"  As  to  the  Scotch,  I  must  suppose  your  heart  and  under- 
standing so  biassed  from  your  earliest  infancy,  in  tlieir  favor, 
that  nothing  less  than  your  own  misfortunes  can  undeceive  you. 
You  will  not  accept  of  the  uniform  experience  of  your  ances- 
tors, and,  when  once  a  man  is  determined  to  believe,  the  very 
absurdity  of  the  doctrine  confirms  him  in  his  faith.  A  bigotted 
understanding  can  draw  a  proof  of  attachment  to  the  house  of 
Hanover,  from  a  notorious  zeal  for  the  house  of  Stuart,  and 
find  an  earnest  of  future  loyalty  in  former  rebellions.  Appear- 
ances are,  however,  in  their  favor  :  so  strongly,  indeed,  that 
one  would  think  they  had  forgotten  that  you  are  their  lawful 
king,  and  had  mistaken  you  for  a  pretender  to  the  crown.  Let 
it  be  admitted,  then,  that  the  Scotch  are  as  sincere ^in  their 
present  professions,  as  if  you  were,  in  reality,  not  an  English- 
man, but  a  Briton  of  the  North.  You  would  not  be  the  first 
prince,  of  their  native  country,  against  whom  they  have  rebel- 
led, nor  the  first  whom  they  have  basely  betrayed.  Have  you 
forgotten,  Sir,  or  has  your  favorite  concealed  from  you  that 
part  of  our  history,  when  the  unhappy  Charles  (and  he  too  had 
private  virtues)  fled  from  the  open,  avowed  indignation  of  his 
English  subjects,  and  surrendered  himself  at  discretion  to  the 
good  faith  of  his  own  countrymen  ?  Without  looking  for  sup- 
port in  their  affections  as  subjects,  he  applied  only  to  their 
honor  as  gentlemen,  for  protection.  They  received  him  as 
they  would  your  Majesty,  with  bows,  and  smiles,  and  falsehood, 
and  kept  him  until  they  had  settled  their  bargain  with  the 
English  parliament ;  then  basely  sold  their  native  king  to  the 
vengeance  of  his  enemies.  This,  Sir,  was  not  the  act  of  a  iew 
traitors,  but  the  deliberate  treachery  of  a  Scotch  parliament, 
representing  the  nation.  A  wise  prince  might  draw  from  it 
two  lessons  of  equal  utility  to  himself.  On  one  side,  he  might 
learn  to  dread  the  undisguised  resentment  of  a  generous  peo- 
ple, who  dare  openly  assert  their  rights,  and  who,  in  a  just 
cause,  are  ready  to  meet  their  sovereign  in  the  field.  On  the 
Other  side,  he  would  be  taught  to  apprehend  something  far  more 


438  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

formidable; a  fawning  treachery,  against  which  no  prudence 

can  guard,  no  courage  can  defend.  The  insidious  smile  upon 
the  cheek,  would  warn  him  of  the  canker  in  the  heart. 

"  From  the  uses  to  which  one  part  of  the  army  has  been  too 
frequently  apphed,  you  have  some  reason  to  expect  that  there 
are  no  services  they  would  refuse.  Here,  too,  we  trace  the 
partiality  of  your  understanding.  You  take  the  sense  of  the 
army  from  the  conduct  of  the  guards,  with  the  same  justice 
with  which  you  collect  the  sense  of  the  people  from  the  repre- 
sentations of  the  ministry.  Your  marching  regiments,  Sir,  will 
not  make  the  guards  their  example,  either  as  soldiers  or  sub- 
jects. They  feel,  and  resent,  as  they  ought  to  do,  that  invaria- 
ble, undistinguishing  favor,  with  which  the  guards  are  treated  ;  * 
while  those  gallant  troops,  by  whom  every  hazardous,  every 
laborious  service  is  performed,  are  left  to  perish  in  garrisons 
abroad,  or  pine  in  quarters  at  home,  neglected  and  forgotten. 
If  they  had  no  sense  of  the  great  original  duty  they  owe  their 
country,  their  resentment  would  operate  like  patriotism,  and 
leave  your  cause  to  be  defended  by  those  to  whom  you  have 
lavished  the  rewards  and  honors  of  their  profession.  The 
Praetorian  Bands,  enervated  and  debauched  as  they  were,  had 
still  strength  enough  to  awe  the  Roman  populace  ;  but  when 
the  distant  legions  took  the  alarm,  they  marched  to  Rome,  and 
gave  away  the  empire. 

"  *  The  number  of  commissioned  officers  in  the  guards  are  to  the 

marching   regiments   as   one   to  eleven  ; the   number  of  regiments 

given  to  the  guards,  compared  with  those  given  to  the  line,  is  about 
three  to  one,  at  a  moderate  computation :  consequently,  the  partiality 
in  favor  of  the  guards  is  as  thirty-three  to  one So  much  for  tlie  offi- 
cers  The  private  men  have  four-pence  '  a  day  to  subsist  on  ;  and  five 

hundred  lashes,  if  they  desert.  Under  this  punishment  they  frequently 
expire.  With  these  encouragements,  it  is  supposed  they  may  be  de- 
pended upon,  whenever  a  certain  person  thinks  it  necessary  to  butcher 
his  fellow-suhjects." 


JUNIUS  TO  THE  KING.  439 

"  On  lliis  side,  then,  which  ever  way  you  turn  your  eyes, 
you  see  nothing  but  perplexity  and  distress.  You  may  deter- 
mine to  support  the  very  ministry  who  have  reduced  your  af- 
fairs to  this  deplorable  situation  :  you  may  shelter  yourself  under 
the  forms  of  a  parliament,  and  set  your  people  at  defiance.  But 
be  assured,  Sir,  that  such  a  resolution  would  be  as  imprudent 
as  it  would  be  odious.  If  it  did  not  immediately  shake  your 
establishment,  it  would  rob  you  of  your  peace  of  mind  for  ever. 

"  On  the  other,  how  different  is  the  prospect !  How  easy, 
how  safe  and  honorable,  is  the  path  before  you  !  The  English 
nation  declare  they  are  grossly  injured  by  their  representatives, 
and  solicit  your  majesty  to  exert  your  lawful  prerogative,  and 
give  them  an  opportunity  of  recalling  a  trust  which  they  find 
has  been  scandalously  abused.  You  are  not  to  be  told,  that 
the  power  of  the  House  of  Commons  is  not  original,  but  dele- 
gated to  them  for  the  welfare  of  the  people  from  whom  they 
received  it.  A  question  of  right  arises  between  the  constituent 
and  the  representative  body.  By  what  authority  shall  it  be 
decided  ?  Will  your  majesty  interfere  in  a  question  in  which 
you  have  properly  no  immediate  concern  ?  It  would  be  a  step 
equally  odious  and  unnecessary.  Shall  the  Lords  be  called 
upon  to  determine  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  Commons  ? 
They  cannot  do  it,  without  a  flagrant  breach  of  the  constitution. 
Or,  will  you  refer  it  to  the  judges  ?  They  have  often  told  your 
ancestors,  that  the  law  of  parliament  is  above  them.  What 
party  then  remains,  but  to  leave  it  to  the  people  to  determine 
for  themselves  ?  They  alone  are  injured  ;  and,  since  there  is 
no  superior  power  to  which  the  cause  can  be  referred,  they 
alone  ought  to  determine. 

"  I  do  not  mean  to  perplex  you  with  a  tedious  argument 
upon  a  subject  already  so  discussed  that  inspiration  could  hardly 
throw  a  new  light  upon  it.  There  arc,  however,  two  points  of 
view,  in  which  it  particularly  imports  your  majesty  to  consider 
the  late  proceedings  of  the  House  of  Commons.     By  depriving 


440  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

a  subject  of  his  birth-right,  they  have  attributed  to  their  own 
vote  an  authority  equal  to  an  act  of  the  whole  legislature  ;  and, 
though  perhaps  not  with  the  same  motives,  have  strictly  follow- 
ed the  example  of  the  Long  Parliament,  which  first  declared 
the  regal  office  useless,  and  soon  after,  with  as  little  ceremony, 
dissolved  the  House  of  Lords.  The  same  pretended  power 
which  robs  an  English  subject  of  his  birth-right,  may  rob  an 
English  king  of  his  crown.  In  another  view,  the  resolution  of 
the  House  of  Commons,  apparently  not  so  dangerous  to  your 
majesty,  is  still  more  alarming  to  your  people.  Not  contented 
with  divesting  one  man  of  his  right,  they  have  arbitrarily  con- 
veyed that  right  to  another.  They  have  set  aside  a  return  as 
illegal,  without  daring  to  censure  those  officers  who  were  par- 
ticularly apprized  of  Mr.  Wilkes's  incapacity,  not  only  by  the 
declaration  of  the  House,  but  expressly  by  the  writ  directed 
to  them,  and  who  nevertheless  returned  him  as  duly  elected. 
They  have  rejected  the  majority  of  votes,  the  only  criterion  by 
which  our  laws  judge  of  the  sense  of  the  people ;  they  have 
transferred  the  right  of  election  from  the  collective  to  the  re- 
presentative body ;  and  by  these  acts,  taken  separately  or  to- 
gether, they  have  essentially  altered  the  original  constitution  of 
the  House  of  Commons.  Versed,  as  your  majesty  undoubt- 
edly is,  in  the  English  history,  it  cannot  easily  escape  you,  how 
much  it  is  your  interest,  as  well  as  your  duty,  to  prevent  one 
of  the  three  estates  from  encroaching  upon  the  province  of  the 
other  two,  or  assuming  the  authority  of  them  all.  When  once 
they  have  departed  from  the  great  constitutional  line  by  which 
all  their  proceedings  should  be  directed,  who  will  answer  for 
their  future  moderation  ?  Or  what  assurance  will  they  give 
you,  that,  when  they  have  trampled  upon  their  equals,  they 
will  submit  to  a  superior  ?  Your  majesty  may  learn,  hereafter, 
how  nearly  the  slave  and  tyrant  are  aUied. 

"  Some  of  your  council,  more  candid  than  the  rest,  admit 
the  abandoned  profligacy  of  the  present  House  of  Commons, 
but  oppose  their   dissolution,  upon  an  opinion,  I  confess,  not 


JUNIUS  TO  THE  KING.  441 

very  unwarrantable,  that  their  successors  would  be  equally  at 
the  disposal  of  the  treasury.  I  cannot  persuade  myself  that 
the  nation  will  have  profited  so  little  by  experience.  But,  if 
that  opinion  were  well  founded,  you  mi2,ht  then  gratify  our 
wishes  at  an  easy  rate,  and  appease  the  present  clamors  against 
your  government,  without  offering  any  material  injury  to  the 
favorite  cause  of  corruption. 

"  You  have  still  an  honorable  part  to  act.  The  affections  of 
your  subjects  may  yet  be  recovered.  But  before  you  subdue 
their  hearts,  you  must  gain  a  noble  victory  over  your  own. 
Discard  those  little,  personal  resentments,  which  have  too  long 
directed  your  public  conduct.  Pardon  this  man  the  remainder 
of  his  punishment ;  and,  if  resentment  still  prevails,  make  it, 
what  it  should  have  been  long  since,  an  act,  not  of  mercy,  but 
of  contempt.  He  will  soon  fall  back  into  his  natural  station.... 
a  silent  senator,  and  hardly  supporting  the  weekly  eloquence 
of  a  newspaper.  The  gentle  breath  of  peace  would  leave  him 
on  the  surface,  neglected  and  unremoved.  It  is  only  the  tem- 
pest that  lifts  him  from  his  place. 

"  Without  consulting  your  minister,  call  together  your  whole 
council.  Let  it  appear  to  the  pubhc,  that  you  can  determine 
and  act  for  yourself.  Come  forward  to  your  people.  Lay 
aside  the  wretched  formalities  of  a  king,  and  speak  to  your 
subjects  with  the  spirit  of  a  man,  and  in  the  language  of  a  gen- 
tleman. Tell  them  you  have  been  fatally  deceived.  The  ac- 
knowledgement will  be  no  disgrace,  but  rather  an  honor,  to 
your  understanding.  Tell  them  you  are  determined  to  remove 
every  cause  of  complaint  against  your  government ;  that  you 
will  give  your  confidence  to  no  man  who  does  not  possess  the 
confidence  of  your  subjects  ;  and  leave  it  to  themselves  to  de- 
termine, by  their  conduct  at  a  future  election,  whether  or  no  it 
be,  in  reality,  the  general  sense  of  the  nation,  that  their  rights 
have  been  arbitrarily  invaded  by  the  present  House  of  Com- 
56 


442  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS-LETTERS. 

mons,  and  the  constitution  betrayed.    They  will  then  do  justice 
to  their  representatives  and  to  themselves. 

"  These  sentiments,  Sir,  and  the  style  they  are  conveyed  in, 
may  be  offensive,  perhaps,  because  they  are  new  to  you.  Ac- 
customed to  the  language  of  courtiers,  you  measure  their  af- 
fections by  the  vehemence  of  their  expressions  ;  and  when 
they  praise  you  indirectly,  you  admire  their  sincerity.  But 
this  is  not  a  time  to  trifle  with  your  fortune.  They  deceive 
you.  Sir,  who  tell  you  that  you  have  many  friends  whose  affec- 
tions are  founded  upon  a  principle  of  personal  attachment. 
The  first  foundation  of  friendship  is  not  the  power  of  confer- 
ring benefits,  but  the  equality  with  which  they  are  received, 
and  may  be  returned.  The  fortune  which  made  you  a  king, 
forbade  you  to  have  a  friend.  It  is  a  law  of  nature,  which 
cannot  be  violated  with  impunity.  The  mistaken  prince,  who 
looks  for  friendship,  will  find  a  favorite,  and  in  that  favorite  the 
ruin  of  his  affairs. 

"  The  people  of  England  are  loyal  to  the  house  of  Hanover, 
not  from  a  vain  preference  of  one  family  to  another,  but  from 
a  conviction  that  the  estabhshment  of  that  family  was  necessary 
to  the  support  of  their  civil  and  rehgious  liberties.  This,  Sir, 
is  the  principle  of  allegiance  equally  soUd  and  rational  ;...fit  for 
Enghshmen  to  adopt,  and  well  worthy  of  your  Majesty's  en- 
couragement. We  cannot  long  be  deluded  by  nominal  distinc- 
tions. The  name  of  Stuart,  of  itself,  is  only  contemptible  ;.... 
armed  with  the  sovereign  authority,  their  principles  are  formi- 
dable. The  prince,  who  imitates  their  conduct,  should  be 
warned  by  their  example ;  and,  while  he  plumes  himself  upon 
the  security  of  his  tide  to  the  crown,  should  remember  that, 
as  it  was  acquired  by  one  revolution,  it  may  be  lost  by  another. 

«  JUNIUS." 


LORD  SHELBURNE  REPINES  AT  INDEPENDENCY.   443 

This  address  appears  to  us,  at  this  distance  of  time  and 
space,  remarkably  dignified,  benevolent,  respectful,  and  preg- 
nant with  wisdom.  Had  it  been  communicated  privately,  a 
prudent  king,  situated  and  circumstanced  like  George  the 
Third,  would  have  sought  the  wise  man  out  and  listened  to  his 
advice ;  like  Pharaoh,  who  finding  Joseph  more  wise  and 
holy  than  any  around  him,  hastened  to  place  him  at  the  head 
of  his  affairs. 

Whatever  had  been  said  of  inflexibility  of  character  in 
the  King,  the  public  saw  little  or  nothing  of  it  after  the 
provisional  articles  of  peace  with  America  were  signed.  He 
said  to  his  parliament  in  December.  1782 — "That  he  had 
lost  no  time  in  giving  the  necessary  orders  for  prohibiting  of- 
fensive operations  against  America,  and  had  been  directing  his 
views  to  a  cordial  reconcihation  with  the  Americans.  Such 
being  his  own  inclination,  and  such  the  sense  of  his  parliament 
and  people,  he  had  not  hesitated  to  conclude  with  them  pro- 
visional articles  of  peace,  by  which  they  were  acknowledged 
free  and  independent  states.  He  deplored  this  dismemberment 
of  the  empire,  which  had  become  a  matter  both  of  policy  and 
prudence  j  but  testified  a  hope  that  religion,  language,  interest, 
and  affection,  would  yet  prove  a  permanent  tie  of  union  be- 
tween the  two  countries." 

Lord  Shelburne,  who  made  the  peace,  declared  that  he  had 
exerted  every  effort  to  preserve  America  to  Britain  ;  that  he 
had  not  voluntarily  yielded  up  this  independency,  but  merely 
submitted  to  the  controUing  power  of  necessity  and/a^e;  and 
added — "  It  was  not  I  that  made  this  cession.  It  was  the  evil 
star  of  Britain.  It  was  the  blunders  of  a  former  administra- 
tion. It  was  the  power  of  revolted  subjects,  and  the  mighty 
arms  of  the  house  of  Bourbon."  In  this.  Earl  Shelburne 
felt  like  Chatham.  After  the  peace  with  America,  George  the 
Third  found  himself  surrounded  by  IVhigs,  with  the  son  of  Lord 
Chatham  for  prime  minister,  and  the  principles  of  Junius 
triumphant ! 


.-..A. 


444  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

One  parting  glance  at  America  !  General  Washington  made 
his  public  entry  into  the  city  of  New  York  in  1782,  amid  the 
acclamations  of  his  grateful  countrymen.  He  then  repaired 
to  Congress,  and  on  a  day  appointed  for  that  ceremony,  he, 
addressing  the  President,  "  asked  leave  to  surrender  into  their 
hands  the  trust  committed  to  him,  and,  having  finished  the 
work  assigned  him,  to  retire  from  the  great  theatre  of  action  to 
the  tranquil  scenes  of  private  life  ;  earnestly  recommending  to 
the  protection  of  Almighty  God  the  interests  of  his  dear 
country,  and  those  who  had  the  superintendence  of  them  to 
his  holy  keeping." 

The  President  replied — "  The  United  States  in  Congress 
assembled^  receive  with  emotions  too  affecting  for  utterance  the 
solemn  resignation  of  the  authority  under  which  you  have  led 
our  troops  ivith  success  through  a  perilous  and  doubtful  war. 
Called  upon  by  your  country  to  defend  its  invaded  j-ights,  you 
accepted  the  sacred  charge  before  it  had  formed  alliances,  and 
whilst  it  was  without  friends  or  a  government  to  support  you. — 
You  have  conducted  the  great  military  contest  with  wisdom,  and 
fortitude,  invariably  regarding  the  rights  of  the  civil  power 
through  all  disasters  and  changes  ; — you  have,  by  the  love  and 
confidence  of  your  fellow-citizens,  enabled  them  to  display  their 
martial  genius,  and  transmit  their  fame  to  posterity.  Having 
defended  the  standard  of  liberty  in  this  new  world,  having 
taught  a  lesson  useful  to  those  who  inflict,  and  to  those  who 
feel  oppression,  you  retire  with  the  blessings  of  your  country  ; 
but  the  glory  of  your  virtues  will  not  terminate  with  your  mil- 
itary command,  it  will  continue  to  animate  remotest  ages. 

"  May  the  Almighty  foster  a  life  so  beloved,  with  his  pecu- 
liar care,  and  may  your  future  days  be  as  happy  as  your  past 
have  been  illustrious.^'  * 


*  Mr.  Belsham,  who  is  freer  from  mistakes  respecting  American 
matters  than  any  other  British  historian,  Gordon  excepted,  speaking 
of  the  sad  fate  of  Major  Andre,  a  young  British  officer  every  way  unfit 
for  a  spy,  says — that  the  high  character  of  the  American  commander 
would  have  derived  adtlitional  lustre  from  indulging  the  earnest  and 


JOHN  ADAMS'S  FIRST  AUDIENCE  WITH  THE  KING.      445 

In  June,  seventeen  hundred  and  eighty-five,  John  Adams,  the 
first  minister  plenipotentiary  from  the  United  States  to  the 
court  of  London,  had  his  introductory  audience  with  King 
George  the  Third.  An  event  so  extraordinary  with  circum- 
stances so  novel  to  us  in  America,  led  Mr.  Adams  to  narrate 
the  particulars,  in  a  letter  to  an  intimate  friend  )  which 
was  kept  private  till  after  the  death  of  that  good  man.  It  was 
thus ; 

"  At  one  o'clock  on  Wednesday,  1st  of  June,  the  master  of 
ceremonies  called  at  my  house,  and  went  with  me  to  the  Sec- 
retary of  State's  office  iq  Cleaveland-row,  where  the  Marquis 
of  Carmarthen  received  me,  and  introduced  me  to  Mr.  Frazier, 
his  under  Secretary,  who  had  been,  as  his  Lordship  said,  un- 
interruptedly in  that  office,  through  all  the  changes  in  adminis- 
tration for  thirty  years,  having  first  been  appointed  by  the  Earl 
of  Holderness. 

"  After  a  short  conversation  upon  the  subject  of  importing 
my  effects  from  Holland,  which  Mr.  Frazier  himself  introduc- 

sole  request  of  Major  Andre  to  die  as  a  soldier,  not  as  a  felon.  The 
fact  was  (I  had  it  from  several  officers  of  rank  and  high  character), 
Washington  would  not  venture  to  risk  the  indulgence,  and  merged 
his  personal  feelings  in  necessity.  The  British  had  hung  three  or  four 
American  officers  as  spies  with  no  regard  to  their  feelings  as  gentle- 
men. When  it  was  whispered  in  camp  ihat  Andre  would  be  shot,  tiicre 
was  a  general  expression  of  discontent,  progressing  to  clamor.  The  offi- 
cers said — '  What ! — shall  we  risk  our  lives,  as  several  of  us  have  done, 
and  some  be  taken  and  hanged  like  dogs,  and  shall  a  detected  British 
spy  meet  a  milder  fate  ?  '  Alarming  resignations  would  have  been  the 
consequence. 

That  celebrated  fault-finder  Horace  Walpole  relates  an  anecdote  of 
Washington  when  a  young  officer,  at  the  time  of  Braddock's  defeat  in 
17.54 ;  whom  he  states  to  have  said  that  the  whistling  of  balls  ivas  grateful 
music  to  his  ears ;  and  applies  to  him  the  epithet  o?  braggart.  Sucli  an 
idle  story  was  told  in  this  country,  wiiich  induced  the  Rev.  Dr.  Gordon 
the  historian,  to  ask  the  truth  of  it  from  llic  General  himself,  who  re- 
plied— "/  do  not  recollect  having  ever  said  any  thing  like  it ;  but  if  J 
did,  I  must  have  been  very  young  indeed."  I  liad  tliis  from  Gordon 
bimself. 


^*^  f^.^.^ 


446  CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

ed,  Lord  Carmarthen  invited  me  to  go  with  him  in  his  coach 
to  court.  When  we  arrived  in  the  ante-chambers,  the  master 
of  ceremonies  introduced  me,  and  attended  me  while  the  Sec- 
retary of  State  went  to  take  the  commands  of  the  king.  While 
I  stood  in  this  place,  where  it  seems  all  ministers  stand  upon 
such  occasions,  always  attended  by  the  master  of  ceremonies, 
the  room  was  very  full  of  ministers  of  state,  bishops,  and  all 
other  sorts  of  courtiers,  as  well  as  the  next  room,  which  is  the 
king's  bed-chamber.  You  may  well  suppose  I  was  the  focus 
of  all  eyes.  I  was  relieved,  however,  from  the  embarrassment 
of  it,  by  the  Swedish  and  Dutch  ministers,  who  came  to  me 
and  entertained  me  with  a  very  agreeable  conversation  during 
the  whole  time.  Some  other  gentlemen  whom  I  had  seen  be- 
fore, came  to  make  their  compliments  too,  until  the  Marquis  of 
Carmarthen  returned,  and  desired  me  to  go  with  him  to  his 
Majesty.  I  went  with  his  lordship  through  the  levee-room  into 
the  king's  closet.  The  door  was  shut,  and  I  was  left  with 
his  Majesty  and  the  Secretary  of  State  alone.  I  made  the 
three  reverences  ;  one  at  the  door,  another  about  half  way, 
and  the  third  before  the  presence — according  to  the  usage  es- 
tablished at  this,  and  all  the  northern  courts  of  Europe  ; — and 
then  I  addressed  myself  to  his  Majesty  in  the  following 
words ; 

"  '  Sife — The  United  States  have  appointed  me  Minister 
Plenipotentinry  to  your  Majesty  ;  and  have  directed  me  to  de- 
liver to  your  Majesty  this  letter,  which  contains  the  evidence  of 
it.  It  is  in  obedience  to  their  express  commands,  that  I  have 
the  honor  to  assure  your  Majesty  of  their  unanimous  disposi- 
tion and  desire  to  cultivate  the  most  friendly  and  liberal  inter- 
course between  your  Majesty''s  subjects  and  their  citizens,  and 
of  their  best  wishes  for  your  Majesty'' s  health  and  happiness,  and 
for  that  ofyourj'amiy. 

"  '  The  appointment  of  a  minister  from  the  United  States  to 
your  Majesty's  court  will  form  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  Eng- 
land and  America.  I  think  myself  more  fortunate  than  all 
my  fellow-citizens,  in  having  the  distinguished  honor  to  be  the 


^ 


<iSP''. 


MR.  ADAMS'S  ADDRESS,  AND  THE  KING'S  REPLY.      447 

first  to  stand  in  your[Majestyh  royal  presence  in  a  dijilomatic 
character  ;  and  I  shall  esteem  myself  the  happiest  of  men  if  I 
can  he  instrumental  in  recommending  my  country  more  and 
more  to  your  Majesty^s  royal  benevolence,  and  of  restoring  an 
entire  esteem,  confidence,  and  affection :  or,  in  better  words,  "  the 
old  good  nature  and  the  good  old  humor"  between  people,  who, 
though  separated  by  an  ocean,  and  under  different  governments, 
have  the  same  language,  a  similar  religion,  a  kindred  blood.  I  beg 
your  J[lajesty''s  permission  to  add,  that  although  1  have  sometimes 
before  been  instructed  by  my  country,  it  ivas  never  in  my  ivhole  life 
in  a  manner  so  agreeable  to  myself.^ 

"  The  King  listened  to  every  word  I  said,  with  dignity  it  is 
true,  but  with  apparent  emotion.  Whether  it  was  my  visible 
agitation,  for  I  felt  more  than  I  could  express,  that  touched 
him,  I  cannot  say  ;  but  he  was  much  affected,  and  answered 
me  with  more  tremor  than  I  had  spoken  with — and  said, — 

"  '  Sir — The  circumstances  of  this  audience  are  so  extraordina- 
ry, the  language  you  have  now  held  is  so  extremely  proper,  and 
the  feelings  you  have  discovered  so  justly  adapted  to  the  occasion, 
that  I  must  say,  that  1  not  only  receive  with  pleasure  the  assurance 
of  the  friendly  disposiiioa  of  the  United  States,  but  that  I  am 
glad  the  choice  has  fallen  upon  you  to  be  their  minister.  1  ivish 
you.  Sir,  to  believe,  and  that  it  may  be  understood  in  America, 
that  1  have  done  nothing  in  the  late  contest  but  what  1  thought 
myself  indispensably  bound  to  do,  by  the  duty  .which  1  oived  to  my 
people.  1  will  be  frank  tvith  you.  1  was  the  last  to  conform  to 
the  separation ;  but  the  separation  having  been  made,  and  having 
become  inevitable,  I  have  always  said  as  1  now  say,  that  I  would 
be  the  first  to  meet  the  friendship  of  the  United  States  as  an 
independent  power.  The  momeyit  I  see  such  sentiments  and  lan- 
guao-e  as  yours  prevail,  and  a  disposition  to  give  this  country  the 
preference,  that  moment  I  shall  say — Let  the  circumstances  of 
language,  religion,  and  blood,  have  their  natural  and  full 
effect.' 

"  I  dare  not  say  that  these  were  the  king's  precise  words  : 
and  it  is  even  possible  that  I  may  have,  in  some  particulars, 


448      CONCERNING  JUNIUS  AND  HIS  LETTERS. 

mistaken  his  meaning  ;  for  although  his  pronunciation  is  as  dis- 
tinct as  I  ever  heard,  he  hesitated  sometimes  between  members 
of  the  same  period.  He  was,  indeed,  much  affected,  and  I 
was  not  less  so,  and  therefore  I  cannot  be  certain  that  I  was  so 
attentive,  heard  so  clearly,  and  understood  so  perfectly,  as  to 
be  confident  of  all  his  words,  or  sense  ;  and  think  that  all 
which  he  said  to  me  should,  at  present,  be  kept  secret  in 
America,  except  his  Majesty,  or  his  Secretary  of  State  should 
judge  proper  to  report  it. — This  I  do  say,  that  the  foregoing  is 
his  Majesty's  meaning,  as  I  then  understood  it,  and  his  own 
words,  as  nearly  as  I  can  recollect  them. 

"  The  king  then  asked  me  whether  I  came  last  from  France; 
and  upon  my  answering  in  the  affirmative,  he  put  on  an  air  of 
famiharity,  and  smiling,  or  rather  laughing,  said,  '  There  is  an 
opinion  among  some  people  that  you  are  not  the  most  attach- 
ed of  all  your  countrymen  to  the  manners  of  France.'  I  was 
surprised  at  this,  because  I  thought  it  an  indiscretion,  and  a  de- 
scent from  his  dignity.  I  was  a  little  embarrassed,  but  deter- 
mined not  to  deny  the  truth  on  the  one  hand,  nor  lead  him  to 
infer  from  it  any  attachment  to  England  on  the  other. — I  threw 
off  as  much  gravity  as  I  could,  and  assumed  an  air  of  gayety, 
and  a  tone  of  decision,  as  far  as  was  decent,  and  said,  '  That 
opinion.  Sir,  is  not  mistaken.  I  must  avow  to  your  Majesty,  I 
have  no  attachment  but  to  my  own  country.'  The  king  re- 
plied as  quick  as  lightning,  '  An  honest  man  will  never  have 
any  other.'' 

"  The  king  then  said  a  word  or  two  to  the  Secretary  of 
State,  which  being  between  them,  I  did  not  hear ;  and  then 
turned  round,  and  bowed  to  me,  as  is  customary  with  all  kings 
and  princes,  when  they  give  the  signal  to  retire.  I  retreated, 
stepping  backwards,  as  is  the  etiquette ;  and  making  my  last 
reverence  at  the  door  of  the  chamber,  I  went  away.  The 
master  of  the  ceremonies  joined  me  the  moment  of  my  coming 
out  of  the  king's  closet,  and  accompanied  me  through  all  the 
apartments  down  to  my  carriage." 


,1W% 


CONCLUSION.  449 

And  thus  ended  the  great  question  between  Great  Britain 
and  the  North  American  Colonies  after  an  eight  years'  war,  to 
the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  people  of  these  United  States. 

In  one  point  of  view  it  cannot  be  called  a  revolution^ 
seeing  our  state  governments  have  proceeded  with  little  varia- 
tion, as  before,  through  all  their  legislative,  judiciary,  and  ex- 
ecutive forms  from  the  governor  to  the  constable,  while  the  gen- 
eral, national,  or  federative  government  approaches  in  several 
points  to  that  of  a  very  limited  monarchy,  the  President  being 
to  all  intents  and  purposes  a  King  for  the  circumscribed  period 
of  four  years. 

In  another  view,  our  separation  from  Britain  was  a  great 
revolution.  It  changed  our  sentiments  for  more  correct  opin- 
ions of  British  bravery,  British  humanity,  and  of  the  know- 
ledge possessed  by  Kings,  privy-counsellors,  lords  and  com- 
mons. On  the  other  hand,  the  struggle  led  to  new  and  more 
correct  opinions  of  France  and  Frenchmen,  and  gave  us  a  new, 
powerful,  and  efficient  friend  in  a  nation  we  had  heretofore 
been  taught  to  believe  our  natural  enemy,  dangerous,  at  once, 
to  our  temporal  and  spiritual  interest.  It  gave  us  a  better 
opinion  of  ourselves.  And  while  we  acquired  a  confidence 
in  our  own  strength,  we  felt  a  pride  of  country  from  the 
success  of  our  arguments  and  arms,  and  the  character  of  the 
man  who  enabled  his  fellow-citizens  to  display  their  martial 
genius,  and  transmit  their  fame  to  posterity.  May  we  feel 
a  pride  still  more  noble,  an  intellectual  pride,  in  the  Constitu- 
tion of  our  confederated  government,  which  we  believe  to  be 
one  of  the  noblest  works  of  man,  and  the  glory  of  the  human 
understanding  ! 


THE  END. 


57 


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